
Class 


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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



By F. S. DELLENBAUGH 



The North-Americans of Yesterday 

A Comparative Study o£ North-American Indian Life, 
Customs, and Products, on the Theory of the Ethnic 
Unity of the Race. 8°. Fully illustrated . net, $4,00 

The Romance of the Colorado River 

A Complete Account of the Discovery and of the 
Explorations from 1540 to the Present Time, with 
Particular Reference to the Two Voyages of Powell 
through the Line of the Great Canyons. 
8°. Third Edition Revised. Fully illustrated, net, $3.50 

Breaking the Wilderness 

The Story of the Conquest of the Far West, from the 
Wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca to the First Descent of 
the Colorado by Powell, and the Completion of the 
Union Pacific Railway, with Particular Account of the 
Exploits of Trappers and Traders. 
8°. Fully illustrated .... net, $3.50 

A Canyon Voyage 

The Narrative of the Second Powell Expedition down 
the Green-Colorado River from Wyoming, and the 
Explorations on Land in the Years 1871 and 1872. 
8°. Fully illustrated . . . . net, $3.50 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK LONDON 



f "^ 1 0|U O l| H o U L.- 




"^S 




y»z?»<L 



ceiD 




The Territory West d the Rocky Mountain* in iSj 7 
n< Bou«TiIh Ml^ A 



ii-i..-.l.-'r P.-1- n f'il-:vrt tK,t -j' 



Fremont and 49 



The Story of a Remarkable Career and its Relation to the Explor- 
ation and Development of our Western Territory, 
Especially of California 



By 
Frederick S. Dellenbaugh 

Author of " A Canyon Voyage," etc. 



But courage, adventure, and the joy of what is uncertain, 
that hath never been dared ; courage, methinketh, is the 
whole prehistoric development of rnan." 

Nietzsche. 



With Maps and Fifty Illustrations 




G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 
XTbe Iknicfterbockcr press 

1914 







Copyright, 19 14 

BY 

FREDERICK S. DELLENBAUGH 



TOe TRm'cftcrbocfeer ipress, mew l^orft 

OCT 15 1914 

©CI,A3S0886 



THE MEMORY 

OF 

THE PACIFIC COAST EMIGRANl 

OF 

THE CALIFORNIA FORTY-NINER 

AND OF 

FREMONT 

"his camp-fires have BECOME CITIES " 



irramii. — -"flaggmEnTTTTTTn^TiTT^y^ ^ ■'.: '''^■' '-^'' ' --^' "^'^/ "-" ; 







PREFACE 

" O, while I live to be the ruler of life— not a slave, 
To meet life as a powerful conqueror, 
No fumes — no ennui — no more complaints, or scornful criticism." 

Walt Whitman, Poem of Joys. 

ALL we can get out of life is life. Fremont got a tre- 
mendous lot of it. His wallet was empty when he 
died and most of the time wliile he lived, but he wrote 
his name indelibly across half a continent, and he will be 
remembered when most of those who have spoken against 
him, and all they have said, M^ill be but grains of sand in the 
interminable desert of the forgotten. The story of his life, 
one of the most interesting of our time, is told in the follow- 
ing pages with as much detail as was possible in a single 
volume. It has been prepared with deliberation, with atten- 
tion to facts, and with a desire to avoid prejudice. When 
the last word has been said against Fremont ; condemnation, 
ridicule, prejudice and all, he remains among the most virile 
and picturesque characters in the history of the United 
States; a character complete in itself; quiet, polite, seldom 
explaining and as seldom complaining. He took the storms 
as they came, with dignity, with patience, and with a kind of 
dumb resolution that commands admiration. 

Once upon a time it was customary for an author to offer 
an apology, or at least a justification, for presenting to the 
public a new book. That modest habit long since has passed 
into Cimmerian darkness, but I may say that if any justiii- 



VI 



Preface 



cation were required for this volume it would lie in the fact 
that no consecutive and complete account of the entire career 
of this extraordinary person with his five exciting Western 
explorations and his war experiences has ever before been 
pubUshed. The story ramifies bewilderingly through the 
intricacies of our history in the three quarters of a century 
which he lived, and an extensive literature must be examined 
to secure its bearings. 

Space was not available, nor was it necessary in carrying 
out the plan of the author, to pursue the side lines very far 
and if sometimes these appear to end somewhat abruptly it 
is because it was not deemed expedient to trace them further. 
The intention has been to so include and eliminate that the 
main narrative will flow with completeness to the final scene 
on the heights of the Hudson. 

The maps have been selected with a view to exhibiting, 
as far as the limits would permit, the growth of knowledge 
of the Far West from before Fremont began in order that the 
reader may form an estimate of Fremont's originality in that 
field. From all that is presented it is evident that he was 
the first to scientifically examine and record the character- 
istics and the actual topography of the enormous reach of 
territory lying between the Mississippi and the Pacific, and 
which his researches were instrumental in bringing imder our 
flag. Before his results were published the ideas of the 
public were vague and those of Congress absurd. 

There have been in United States History three deciding, 
epoch-making events: The Declaration of Independence; 
The extension of control to the Pacific; and The State's 
Rights War. With the second of these momentous occur- 
rences Fremont is inseparably connected, not more by his 
energy in reconnoitring the country of a foreign power and 
in the CaHfomia affair, than by his lucid exposition of the 
true nature of that extensive and diversified domain. As 
this is the story of Fremont, not of California or the Far 
West, the reader will imderstand omissions of some highly 



Preface vii 

important and interesting incidents. To supply these he 
should have at his elbow two admirable books in this field; 
California under Spain and Mexico, by Irving Berdine 
Richman, and California by Josiah Royce. The latter's 
hostile attitude towards Fremont I mention. Aside from 
this the book is without prejudice. 

I am free to admit that before I began my detailed 
examination into the career of Fremont I held something of 
that uncertain sense of opposition which is so aften en- 
countered when mentioning him, but the deeper I got, the 
more I became satisfied that, even admitting many faults, 
Fremont has not received justice at the hands of his Govern- 
ment nor of his fellow countrymen. This is partly explained 
by the animosities of the campaign of 1856 which left an 
indelible stain. Hay and Nicolay in their Life of Lincoln 
remark: "Hostile journals delineated Fremont as a shal- 
low, vainglorious, ' woolly -horse,' 'mule-eating,' 'free-love,' 
' nigger-embracing ' black Republican, an extravagant, 
insubordinate, reckless adventurer, a financial spendthrift 
and political mountebank," and it has since been difficult even 
for sensible people to disentangle their judgment from this 
fog of slander that still thickens the air. Fremont appears 
to have suffered from at least three causes ; his success which 
brought against him the subtle powers of jealousy ; extrava- 
gant laudation by his friends; and his active opposition to 
slavery. 

It is now held that the British never had designs on 
California. While it may be true that the British govern- 
ment had no direct designs there were many indirect interests 
at work to obtain a footing. Had this been secured before 
Fremont began his definite operations they never could have 
been dislodged without war. California would have been a 
Canada on the Pacific. But after Fremont played his hand 
no foreign nation could have stepped in without direct 
antagonism to the United States, and he planned the affair 
so adroitly that in case it became necessary or advisable to 



VIU 



Preface 



repudiate what he had done the path was clear. Even some 
of his later critics at home have been deceived and have 
tried to prove Fremont's intentions by the very documents 
that were written to veil his real purpose. Montgomery and 
Gillespie and later Stockton were not in doubt as to what 
Fremont and our Government intended, or as to his object 
in California. He was in a difficult situation, far from com- 
munication with the men, Benton, Polk, Bancroft, whose 
will he was endeavouring to execute, and he steered a 
course, which, all things considered was a very good one, 
perhaps the best possible at the time. 

The thanks of the author are due to his friends the pub- 
lishers for their kind patience over the delay in completing 
this book; to the New York PubHc Library for various 
favours; to Warren C. Crane, Esq., for the use of prints from 
his collection; to Mrs. E. H. Harris for the privilege of 
examining correspondence, on the subject of the interment 
of Fremont's remains and the monument to him, between 
her father the late William H. Whiton of Piermont and 
Mrs. Fremont, to Henry Gannett, Esq., for a map of the 
United States, and to Doctor D. T. MacDougal for desert 
photographs. 



F. S. D. 



New York, 
April 10, 1 914. 







^V^ 




CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
Preparation ........ 

A Scientific Pathfinder — His Father and Mother — An Expulsion 
and a Recompense — A Foreign Cruise — Beginning Life in the 
Open — Jean Nicolas Nicollet, the Man of Science — Superior 
Instruction in Mapwork — Love at First Sight — An Elopement 
— On the Threshold. 



CHAPTER II 

Conditions and Prospects ..... 

The Great Wilderness and its Six Formidable Barriers — Some 
Mythical Rivers — The Original Inhabitants — Arrival of the 
Spaniards — Old Towns in New Mexico — California Alta Settle- 
ment by Missions — The Remarkable Entrada of Padre Escalante 
— American Invaders — The Northwest versus British — The 
Southwest versus Mexicans — California versus the Field — 
California Alta Adrift — Who Gets California? 



20 



CHAPTER III 
To St. Vrain's and Fort Laramie .... 

The Lure of Free Land — Fremont's First Expedition — Kit Carson, 
Paragon of Mountaineers — Outfitting at Chouteau's — On the 
Oregon Trail — Numberless Buffalo — Dividing the Party at the 
Forks of the Platte — The Mountains Sighted — Wild Horses and 
Wild Arapaho Warriors — At Chabonard's Camp — Jim Beck- 
wourth, the Mulatto Scout — Fort Platte — Arrival at Fort 
Laramie. 



46 



Contents 



CHAPTER IV 
To South Pass and Fremont 's Peak . . . .68 

Meeting Jim Bridger — Unwelcome News — Bissonette the Inter- 
preter — A Feast of Dog — Structure of Fort Laramie — A Warning 
Ignored — Drought, Grasshoppers, and Anxiety — Mending a 
Barometer — Snow-capped Mountains and South Pass — The 
Second Barrier Surmounted and the Highest Summit Attained. 



CHAPTER V 
Back Home and Forth Again 89 

The Episode of the Cross — Navigation under Difficulties — Rocks, 
Rapids, and Canyons of the Platte — Fort Laramie Again — A 
Bull-boat on a Sandy River — The Village of the Grand Pawnees 
— Cowbells and Bellevue — A Boat for the Missouri — Down the 
River to St. Louis — On to Washington — A Second Expedition 
Projected — At the Mouth of the Kansas — A Sudden Start — A 
Mystery. 



CHAPTER VI 
From Kansas City to Green River Valley . . 106 

A Troublesome Cannon — Mutiny of Mrs. Fremont and Others — 
Benton Demands a Court-martial — Outfit of the Second Expedi- 
tion — The Remarkable William Gilpin — Across Kansas and 
Nebraska — St. Vrain's Fort Again — Beginning of Pueblo, Colo- 
rado — Kit Carson Comes — The Fontaine qui Bouit — Up the 
Cache a la Poudre River — Assault by Arapahos and Cheyennes 
— The Oregon Trail to Green River Valley. 



CHAPTER VII 
Green River Valley to Salt Lake . . . -135 

Jim Bridger at Salt Lake — Fremont Crosses to Bear River — The 
Famous Beer Spring — "Digger" Indians — Vegetarians Despised 
— Range of the American Bison and Its Extermination — Afloat 
on Bear River — Camp Near Ogden, Utah — Navigation of Salt 
Lake — Disappointment Island — Swimming in Brine — Brigham 
Young's Accusations. 



Contents xi 



CHAPTER VIII 

To Fort Vancouver 155 

Eating Horse Meat — The Plains of Snake River — Arrive at Fort 
Hall — First Waggon through to the Columbia — The Three 
Great Falls of Snake River — Fort Boise and Monsieur Payette — 
Across the Blue Mountains — Marcus Whitman's Mission — The 
Methodist Mission — Music from a Sawmill — Fort Vancouver — 
Plan for a Circuitous Return. 



CHAPTER IX 

The Search for the Rio Buenaventura . . .179 

A Myth that was not a Myth — Volcanoes of the Columbia — The 
Precious Howitzer — Some Cold Weather — Klamath Marsh Taken 
for the Lake — Where is Mary's Lake? — Summer Lake and Lake 
Abert — Deep Snows, Sandy Valleys, Black Fog — A Topographi- 
cal Surprise — The Lake of the Pyramid — Feasting on Salmon- 
trout — No Rio Buenaventura — Westward Ho! 



CHAPTER X 

Across the Sierra Nevada in Winter . . . 204 

A Bold Project — Americans not Wanted — Fifth to Scale the Sierra 
— Those who Went Before — New Indians and Pine Nuts — Sign 
Language — Chilly Days — Up the Hill and Down Again — Rocks 
on Rocks — Snow on Snow — Famine — Dog and Mule Steaks — 
Through the Pass — Down the American Fork — Preuss Wanders 
— Sutter's Fort. 



CHAPTER XI 
Sutter's Fort to Las Vegas ..... 230 

New Helvetia and the Governor Thereof — A Declaration of In- 
dependence — Gold Discoveries — Up the San Joaquin Valley — 
Wonderful Flowers — An Old Mission Described — Wild Horses 
— Tehachapi Pass — A Sudden Transformation — The Mohave 
Desert and Beyond — A Strange Forest of Yucca Trees — The 
Inconstant River and the Spanish Trail — A Scalp for a Scalp — 
Poor Little Pablo — The Springs of Las Vegas. 



xii Contents 



CHAPTER XII 
Las Vegas to Bent's Fort and Home .... 254 

A Delightful Oasis — Eastward through the Dry Country — Inso- 
lent Indians — The Virgin River — Tabeau Killed — Mountain 
Meadows — ^Joseph Walker Comes — On the Trail of Escalante — 
Utah Lake — Over the Wasatch — Fort Uinta and its Destruction 
— Brown's Hole — The Parks of Colorado — Bent's Fort and the 
Arkansas — To St. Louis and Washington. 



CHAPTER XIII 
Washington to Monterey ...... 282 

Captain by Brevet — Washington Wants California — Mexico Mov- 
ing for War — The Third Fremont Expedition — Captain Fr6mont 
in the Secrets — Off to Bent's Fort — Up the Arkansas — Over the 
Wasatch to Salt Lake — Across the Great Basin and the Sierra 
Nevada — Sutter's Fort Again — A Lost Party — Encounter with 
Horse-thief Indians — California's Unrest — Micheltorena De- 
posed — Fremont at Monterey. 

CHAPTER XIV 
The Reconnaissance to the North .... 307 

A Visit to the Commandante General — The Fremont Parties again 
United — Permission to Stay Revoked — Fremont's Defiance — At 
Lassen's Ranch — Naming Lake Rhett — A Messenger from 
Washington — New Instructions — A Fatal Night — Basil's Last 
Sleep, and Crane's and Denny's — Vengeance and Vengeance — 
Back to the Sacramento Valley — End of Exploration Work. 

CHAPTER XV 
The Bear Flag Affair ...... 326 

A Decree of Expulsion — Chrysopylae or the Golden Gate — Dis- 
persing Indians — Capturing Mexican Horses — The Bear Flag — 
Capture of Sonoma — Victory in the First Battle — Murder on 
Both Sides — A Waiting Game — The Mexican War — Tardiness 
of Commodore Sloat — The Flag Raised at Monterey — The 
Sonoma Battalion — A Rugged Band — Walpole's Impressions — 
Commodore Stockton to Command — Fremont and Gillespie 
Join his Forces. 



Contents xiii 



CHAPTER XVI 
The Conquest of California 355 

Capture of San Diego — Los Angeles Occupied — Fall of New Mexico 
with Magoffin's Aid — Carson as Guide Turned Back — Insurrec- 
tion at Los Angeles — The Battle of San Pascual — Killed and 
Wounded — A Clash of Commanders — The California Battalion 
— Sentence of Death on Pico — The Treaty of Couenga — Gover- 
nor Fremont — A Wonderful Ride — A Challenge for a Duel — 
Fremont under Arrest — Death of his Mother — The Court- 
martial — Dismissed from the Army. 



CHAPTER XVII 
The Fourth Expedition ...... 381 

Asking too much of the Colonel — Justice Blind — Reinstatement 
and Resignation — The Map and the Geographical Memoir — 
Fremont versus Wilkes — A Railway to the Pacific — The Great 
Event of 1848 — Marshall and his Gold at Sutter's Mill — Organis- 
ing the Fourth Expedition — The March into Winter — Snow and 
Famine — A Hundred Mules Lost — Alas for the Men! — Starva- 
tion and Death — Disaster — Fremont Reaches Taos. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
Some Events of '49 . . . . . , . 404 

Friends at Taos — Aubrey's Rides — Recuperation — Down the 
Rio Grande — Tucson and San Xavier del Bac — Mrs. Fremont 
at Panama — Days of Fever — San Francisco Society — Slavery or 
no Slavery — The Mariposa Claim and its Gold Mines — Fremont 
Made Boundary Commissioner — Acceptance and Resignation — 
The Constitutional Convention — The State Organised — Fremont 
Elected United States Senator — To Washington by Panama — 
Waiting for Recognition. 



CHAPTER XIX 
Washington, London, Paris, and Parowan . . 422 

California Admitted to the Union — Senator Fremont — His Work in 
Congress — Commended as an Explorer by Humboldt and Ritter 
— Gold Medals from Prussia and the Royal Geographical Society 
— Slavery and Anti-Slavery Again — The Mariposa Problem — 



xiv Contents 

PAGE 

Rough-and-Ready Forty-niners — Fremont Arrested in Eng- 
land — A Sojourn in Paris — On the Trail Again — Fifth and Last 
Expedition — Named for President — Starving through the Moun- 
tains—A Pathfinder — Death of Oliver Fuller— Friendly Mor- 
mons of Parowan — Mental Telepathy. 



CHAPTER XX 

Politics, War, and Finance 450 

No Obstacle to a Railway — Benton's Defeat — Sutter Goes Down — 
Fremont Continues West from Parowan — Crossing Nevada 
— Balked by the Sierra — Reasons for a Railway to the Pacific — 
Nominated for the Presidency — A Bitter Campaign — No Help 
from Benton — Champion of Freedom — Defeat — Mariposa Again 
— Fighting Claim-jumpers — Financial Complications — Bret 
Harte and Black Point — A Major-General — Emancipation Pro- 
clamation — Relieved of Command — The Virginia Campaign — 
Mariposa Revived — Fremont Loses — A Major-General once 
more — Across the Range — New York's Monument. 



Bibliography ........ 483 

Index 503 




-•.-<iS5*i,>-.*r-'?s:i:t:. 




ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 

FACING 
PAGB 

On the Barrier ..... Frontispiece ^' 

Original painting by F. S. Dellenbaugh. 

St. Louis, Missouri ....... 5 

Metropolis of the West in the time of the Frdmont Expeditions. 
From Meyer's Universum. 
Drawn from nature. 

Fort Snelling, Minnesota . . . .- . lo^- 

Where St. Paul now stands. 

In 1838 when Fremont was there with Nicollet, it was the centre 

of all operations in the North-West. 
A part built of stone in 1820 still stands in the present military 

reservation. 
From Meyer's Universum. 

Type of Missouri River Steamboat Prior to 1840 . 13 

From A History of the Missouri River, by Phil. E. Chappell, 
Kansas Historical Association Collections, vol. ix. 

The British Idea of Western North America in 1782 18 

Reduced from Thomas Jefferys' Map. 

Shows the Peninsula only, called California, while Drake's name 
of New Albion is given to what the Spaniards claimed as 
CaHfomia Alta. The Columbia River is indicated as the " River 
of the West," and another course for the River of the West is 
given farther south, flowing into the Pacific at San Francisco 
Bay. Captain Gray entered the mouth of the Columbia ten 
years after this map was dated, or in 1792. 

The Far West as Understood in 18 18 . . . 20 

By William Rector, U. S. Sur\'cyor for Missouri and Illinois. 
The title states that it extends north to 52°, but in this reproduc- 
tion from Warren's Memoir it barely goes to 48°, 
See Bonneville Map at p. 24 and Map at p. 89. 



xvi Illustrations and Maps 



FACING 
PAGE 



Knowledge of the Far West in 1826 . . . 21 

By A. Finley, Philadelphia. 

Here the mythical rivers are given, the Rio Los Mongos, Rio 
Timpanogos, and Rio Buenaventura. Lake Salado is Sevier 
Lake, and Lake Timpanogos is Great Salt Lake. See Bonneville 
Map A, facing p. 24, and Map B, facing p. 89, which were the 
first to show the correct topography, though Gallatin's, 1836, 
gave much of it right. 

The Territory West of the Rocky Mountains in 
1837. The Bonneville Map A 24 

First published in 1837 with Washington Irving's work. (See 
footnote page 24 and Map B, facing page 89.) 

" On all the maps of those days the Great Salt Lake had two great 
outlets to the Pacific Ocean ; one of these was the Buenaventura 
River. . . . It was from my explorations [1832+] and those of 
my party alone that it was ascertained that this lake had no 
outlet; that the California range [Sierra Nevada] basined all the 
waters of its eastern slope without further outlet. It was for 
this reason that Mr. W. Irving named the Salt Lake after me, 
and he believed I was fairly entitled to it. ... The earliest 
editions [of Irving's book] have maps of my making." — Letter of 
Captain Bonneville, August 24, 1857 — Pacific Railroad Re- 
ports, vol. xi., page 33. 

Senator Benton claimed that ' ' all the maps up to that time [Fremont] 
had shown this region [Great Basin] traversed ... by a great 
river called Buena Ventura." Not only the above map by 
Bonneville eliminated the Buenaventura but also the map by 
Gallatin published in 1836 in Transactions of the American Anti- 
quarian Society, vol. ii., Worcester, Mass. The map of Captain 
Wilkes, U. S. N. , dated 1841, and made up from Bonneville's and 
Gallatin's for the Great Basin region, with probably information 
direct from Jedediah Smith and Joseph Walker, also eliminated 
the Buenaventura as a Great Basin river. The term Skynses 
Indians should be Skyuses, as the Cayuses were then called. 
The Battle Lake was so named by Walker's party, who killed in 
1833 not 25 but 39 Indians there, as an example of what they 
could do. 

On the Plains of Southern Nevada ... 27 

The Clistoyucca ahorescens or Joshua Tree. Note the clusters of 

blossoms on the ends of branches. 
Photograph by Dr. D. T. MacDougal, Desert Laboratory. 



Illustrations and Maps xvii 



PAGE 



Views of Spruce Tree House . . . . . 28 / 

Clifl dwelling, Mancos Canyon, Mesa Verde, Colorado. 
Photographs by John Wetherill. 

Church of San Miguel, Santa Fe, New Mexico . 30 / 

As it was before the hurricane of 1872. The tower is now lacking. 
One of the oldest structures in the United States. Said to have 
been built in 1582; rebuilt, 1710. Santa F6 was founded 1605. 

Little Zion Valley, Virgin River .... 32 

Character of the region of South-Western Utah, through which 
Fremont passed on his return in 1844. 

The Great Temple Butte, Virgin River, Southern 
Utah . . . . . . , . .32 

Altitude 7500 feet above sea. 

Wolpi, Arizona ....... 34 

This is one of the Mold villages. It is on the end of a narrow 
m^sa or promontory of cliff about seven hundred feet above the 
valley. Two other villages occupy the same m&a behind the 
point of view. 

Photograph by Ben Wittick, Albuquerque, N. M, 

The Third Barrier 39 . 

Character of the Colorado River. 
Photograph by Julius T. Stone, 1909. 

California Alta in 1841 . . . . . .44 

From the Report of Captain Wilkes, vol. v. 

Jedediah Smith's return trail of 1827 is given, and the Great Basin 
area is presented without imaginary rivers, though a note sug- 
gests a possible unknown stream. vSalt Lake is called " Youta," 
and the Utah Lake of to-day is included as an arm of the main 
lake; the Virgin River is apparently "Pyramid or Adams " River. 
Adams was the name given by Smith on his outward march in 
honour of the President. Inconstant River is probab.'y intended 
for the Mohave. Rio S. Maria is Bill Williams Fork, R. Yaquesila 
is the Little Colorado, and Rio Nabajoa, the San Juan. " Pto 
Bucarelli " (Puerto de Bucareli) on the Colorado was the name 
given by Padre Garces to the Grand Canyon where he saw it 
on his way to the Moki Towns in 1776. Albert Gallatin, in 1836, 
published a map giving the topography of the "Great Sandy 
Desert " very much as it is given here, and it is apparent that 
Wilkes consulted the Gallatin map as well as the Bonneville 
maps ; for the latter see pages 24 and 89. 



xviii Illustrations and Maps 



St. Charles, Missouri . . . . . .46 

First capital of the State of Missouri, and an important place in 

the early days of the West. It was founded in 1769. 
From Meyer's Vniversum. 

John Charles Fremont, 18 13-1890 .... 53 

From an old print. Probably about as he looked at the time of 
his first expeditions to the Far West. 

Indians Hunting the Bison ..... 59 

The bow-and-arrow was eflfective in such hunts, the arrow pene- 
trating with great force. 
From a water-colour painting by C. M. Russell. 

Waggon Camp at Dawn 65' 

Drawn by R. Swain Gifford. 

Mr. Gifford, who died in 1905, was in the Far West in 1870 and 
accompanied the Hayden Survey party as a guest from Cheyenne 
to Fort Bridger. Dr. Hayden, in his report, says though a guest 
he "rendered us most efficient aid, and by his genial nature 
endeared himself to all." 

Showing roughly the Various Routes of Fremont 
IN his Five Expeditions, and with Nicollet, etc. ; 
also the Political Divisions of the West up to 
1846-1848 68' 

Texas claimed to the Rio Grande as indicated by the closely dotted 
portion, but the original Mexican State was about as given by 
the more open cross lines. It was the moving of United States 
troops into the closely dotted area that began hostilities in 1846, 
especially when General Taylor refused the Mexican request to 
withdraw beyond the river Nueces. 

Red Rock Mountains 76 

Main divide Rocky Mountains. Typical landscape of the region. 
Photograph by W. H. Jackson, Hayden Survey. 

The Indian Process of "Jerking" Meat on Scaffolds 78 

Sources of the Great Rivers of the West in 1837. 
The Bonneville Map B 89/ 

First published in 1837 with Washington Irving's work. (See 
footnote page 24 and Map A, facing page 24.) 



Illustrations and Maps xix 



FACING 
PAGE 



Both in this and in Map A, the topography is correct in its salient 
features, and the relationships of the various mountain ranges 
and rivers to each other are surprisingly good for a map made 
without base Hne or triangulation. 



Chief Running Deer, a Crow ..... 90 

The Crows were defiant at the time of Fremont's operations. 
Photograph by F. Jay Haynes. 

Chief Yellow-Dog, a Blackfoot . . . -98 

The Blackfoot tribe was the most dangerous in the northern country. 

The Crows came next. In the south the Apaches and the 

Comanches were correspondingly fierce. 
Photograph by F. Jay Haynes. 



Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, 1782-1858 106 

Father-in-law of Fremont, and Senator for thirty years, a man 
of high ideals, clear judgment, and independent thought. 

From an engraving from a painting by Chappell. Engraving pub- 
lished in 1862. 



An Old-Time Frontier Scout . . . . .112 

These men had only muzzle-loading rifles. 
From a drawing by Paxson. 

Long's Peak (Altitude 14,271 Feet), and Estes Park, 
Colorado . . . . . . . • n? 

From the engraving on wood after drawing by Thomas Aloran, N.A. 
In Dr. Hayden's Report for 1877. 

Monumental Forms . . . . . . .120 

In Monument Park, Colorado. The region is full of strange 

erosions of this kind. 
From Hayden's Report, 1877. 

Pike's Peak, Colorado ...... 124 

Altitude 14,108 feet. 

Seen through the Gateway to the Garden of the Gods. 

From the engraving on wood after a drawing by Thomas Moran, N.A. 

In Dr. Hayden's Report for 1877. 



XX Illustrations and Maps 



FACING 
PAGE 



Soda and Beer Springs on Bear River, Idaho . 142 

The Steamboat Spring is on the opposite bank where the man is 

standing. 
Photograph by W. H. Jackson, about 1877. 

Shoshone Falls of Snake River .... 161 

And the great Lava Plain in which it is set. 
Photograph by C. Hart Merriam, 1899. 

Snake River below Lewiston . . . . .167 

Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh. 

Mount Hood (Altitude 11,225 Fest) and a Salmon 
Fish Wheel ........ 171 

From the Dalles, Oregon. Mount Hood is an " extinct " volcano. 

Astoria, Oregon, in 1841 ...... 174 

From vol. v. of the Report of Captain Charles Wilkes, U. S. N. 

Mount St. Helens, Washington . . . .181 

From the Columbia River. Altitude 10,000 feet. This is an 

" extinct " volcano. 
Copyright by Geo. M. Weister. 

Nez Perce Tepees 184 

These are built in the original style of plains tepee of buffalo skins. 
Photograph by W. H. Jackson, Hayden Survey. 

Beginning of a Canyon . , . . . .194 

Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh. 

Yosemite Valley, California ..... 208 

The Three Brothers. 

Photograph by United States Geological Survey. 

Antelope Valley, Nevada . . . . .211 

Looking south. 

Showing aspect of the Sierra Nevada from the east foot. 

Photograph by United States Geological Survey. 

Job's Peak of the Sierra Nevada in California . 213 

Altitude 10,500 feet. Very close to Fremont's trail of 1844. 



Illustrations and Maps xxi 

FACING 
PACE 

Fremont's Approach to Carson Pass from Antelope 

Valley ......... 219, 

The first crossing of the Sierra in winter Iiy white men. 
Markleeville sheet (reduced) of the United States Geological Survey. 

Sutter's Celebrated Fort ..... 230 

Begun in 1841, completed in 1845. 

Sutter called the site New Helvetia. It was the beginning of the 

present city of Sacramento. The American flag was raised over 

the fort July 11, 1846. 
From a print in the Ford Collection, New York Library. Drawn 

by George Th. Devereux probably in Cleason's Pictorial. 

In the Sierra Nevada, California .... 242 

King's River. 

Style of Landscape and Vegetation of Southern 
Nevada and South-Eastern California across 
WHICH Fremont Travelled Eastward in 1844 . 251 

There are very few springs and the rainfall is less than five inches 
a year. 

Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1876 ..... 254 

From a sketch in colour by F. S. Dellenbaugh. 

A Pai Ute Home ....... 264 

Shows the use of the grinding stone to pulverise grass seed. 
Photograph b}' J. K. Hillers, Powell Survey, 1872. 

A Pioneer Cabin ....... 268 

One of the Faithful ...... 268 

The Canyon of Lodore, Green River, Wyoming , 272 

Fremont in 1844 passed just west of this canyon going north and 
at one point could look down into it. This canyon is twenty 
miles long and 2500 feet deep. 

Photograph by E. O. Beaman. 

Captain John A. Sutter ...... 301 

(Johann August Sutter.) 

1803-1S80. One of the most conspicuous figures of California 

Alta in the 40's. 
Print Collection, New York Library. 



xxii Illustrations and Maps 

FACING 
PAGE 

Mission of San Carlos, Monterey, 1794 . . 307 

The original old church is seen on the left. Just beyond is the 
beginning of the "new" church (July 7, 1793) which was com- 
pleted September 14, 1797. Dwellings of neophytes are on the 
right of the corral and hill beyond. 

Captain Vancouver visited the place in 1792, 1793, 1794, and this 
drawing is ascribed to him. The new church went to ruin but 
has been, in recent years, restored. Padres Junipero Serra, 
Crespi, Lopez, and Lasuen are buried in the "new " church. 

Early Monterey, California ..... 309 

From Meyer's Universum. 

Mount Shasta, California . . . . .313 

From the north, near Sheep Rock. Altitude, 14,380 feet. 
Photograph by United States Geological Survey. 

Storage Basket, California Tribes . . . 324 

Size about 2' x 2' 6". 
Collection American Museum. 

The Golden Gate ....... 329 

And San Francisco of an early date. 
From Print Collection, New York Library. 

A. The Original " Bear Flag " made by Todd at 
Sonoma, June 14, 1846 ...... 333 

B. Guidon Belonging to Sonoma Troop, California 
Battalion ........ 333 

These flags were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake disaster. 
Cuts from Out West Magazine, August, 1905. 

Early Vallejo, California ..... 343 

From Print Collection of the New York Library. 

Old Custom House in California .... 355 

At Monterey. 

The Ocotillo ........ 407 

A striking plant of the Far South-West. 

The branches look bare but they have very small leaves, while at 

the ends, in season, come the blossoms, suggestive of scarlet 

gladioli. 
Photograph by Dr. D. T. MacDougal, Desert Laboratory. 



Illustrations and Maps xxiii 



FACING 
PAGE 



Jessie Benton Fremont ...... 410 

From an oil painting by Fagnani. Painted in New York about 1 856. 

San Francisco in the " 50's " 413 

Painted by G. W. Casilear. 
Engraved by W. L. Ormsby. 

Early Sacramento ....... 429 

From the Print Collection, New York Library. 

Little Fire Hole Falls ... 438 

Characteristic of hundreds of Rocky Mountain streams. 
Photograph by United States Geological Survey. 

Early San Francisco ...... 455 

From Meyer's Universtim. 

Colonel Fremont Riding the "Abolition Nag," Led 
BY Seward to Salt River ..... 459 
An example of the campaign cartoons of 1856, when Fremont ran 
against two other candidates, Buchanan and Fillmore, for Presi- 
dent of the United States. 
Print Collection, New York Library. 

Portrait of General Fremont .... 470 

From a painting in 1862 by Alonzo Chappell after a recent photo- 
graph. 

Monument to General Fremont .... 481 

Piermont, New York, Rockland Cemetery. 
Erected 1906 by the State of New York. 
Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh, 1913. 



Note. — The cover and the head- and tail-pieces are from drawings 

by the author. 




Fremont and '49 



CHAPTER I 



PREPARATION 

A Scientific Pathfinder — His Father and Mother — An Expulsion and a Recom- 
pense — A Foreign Cruise — Beginning Life in the Open — Jean Nicolas 
Nicollet, the Man of Science — Superior Instruction in Mapwork — Love 
at First Sight — An Elopement — On the Threshold. 

EACH particular incident in the history of a country is 
generally linked with the name of some single promi- 
nent person, who represents, in the popular estimate 
at least, the success or failure of that incident, though as a 
rule human affairs are not so simple as this and many other 
individuals are concerned, some even more vitally than the 
accepted representative. In this way our acquisition of 
California is laid mainly to the enterprise and skill of John 
Charles Fremont, who was active in the circumstances of the 
conquest, and who so felicitously christened the entrance 
to San Francisco Bay, "The Golden Gate. " Whatever may 
be said in the way of adverse criticism of him, and there are 
some who refuse to acknowledge his pre-eminence in this 
field, his endeavours were single-minded and sincere and he 
can never be dissociated from the beginnings of the great 
State that bounds our Pacific shores for more than half our 
domain, nor from the thrilling '"49" period which so amaz- 
ingly developed it. The same may be said of the intervening 



2 Fremont and '49 

region where he carried on some important explorations 
which for originality, enterprise, and excellence stand to his 
everlasting credit. Pathfinder, as his admirers loved to 
call him, perhaps he was not in a strictly literal interpreta- 
tion of that term, but on this basis there were no pathfinders 
after the first native inhabitants and the roaming buffalo. 
He himself seems never to have put forward any claim to 
being a pathfinder and invariably stated who had gone before 
and all the data he could find. He was, at any rate, a 
scientific pathfinder in that he was first to mark the trails 
on paper, and he travelled where few had preceded him in 
many cases, and where no such well-trained observer as he 
had ever gone. He was first to lay before the public accurate 
details of the vast region now comprising about one quarter 
of the United States, and which lay entirely south of the 
country traversed by Lewis and Clark in their great explora- 
tion. "Courage, adventure, and the joy of what is uncer- 
tain, that hath never been dared," seemed to be the balm 
of his soul, and he acted accordingly. If he did not always 
satisfy those who remained by the fireside, who is to blame? 
Someone has said that no man is born whose work is not 
bom with him, and this appears to be specially illustrated in 
the case of Fremont. He was a child of destiny if there ever 
was one. He was marked from birth for a picturesque and 
romantic career by the laws of heredity, as well as for the 
discouragirxg cup of Tantalus, tor in all his wanderings and 
enterprises never did his grasp quite close on the elusive 
gifts with which fortune lured him on. The story properly 
begins with a more or less nomadic father, of artistic as well 
as scientific inclinations, also a John Charles, a Frenchman 
from near Lyons. He exhibited the trait that afterwards was 
to become so marked a feature of his first-born, by leaving- 
home and taking passage across the sea for Saint Dominique 
(Haiti), then under the rule of his countrymen. This was 
not the matter-of-fact journey that it now is in our steam- 
propelled, floating hotels, but required some degree of 



A Nomadic Father 3 

courage on the part of a traveller to set forth, particularly as 
foreign lands then regarded all strangers with deep suspicion, 
and more particularly, in his case, as the ocean was covered 
with English cruisers searching for Frenchmen of any 
description, the two countries being at war. The result was 
that, before he could arrive, the ship on which he had ventured 
was taken by a British man-o'-war. The prize, including 
of course the father of our future explorer, was sailed to a 
British island of the West Indies, and held there. To eke 
out the small prison allowance, he worked with other prison- 
ers at basketry, and he also utilised his artistic talents by 
painting frescoes in the houses of the wealthy. 

After several years of this life he finally succeeded in get- 
ting away, and reached Norfolk, Virginia, in his effort to get 
back to his native land. But the fates did not intend that 
he should ever see that land again. Basketry and fresco 
painting now gave place to the teaching of French, in the 
necessity for support and to raise money for his passage, but 
here the subtle warrior Cupid took a hand in the affair. He 
met the lady of his heart, another unusual character, and 
vital to this story. She was very beautiful, a daughter of 
one of the best families of Virginia, and, though yoimg, her 
career in the way of unusual and unpleasant experiences 
rivalled his own. She was at this time, unwillingly, Mrs. 
Pryor. At the age of seventeen she had consented to marry 
Major John Pryor, a man forty-five years her senior, not for 
love, but because of the persistent urging of her sister and 
other relatives who deemed it, imder the circumstances, 
expedient. For Anne Whiting's inheritance had been 
sadly dissipated by her mother's second husband, named 
Carey, also of distinguished ancestry, but, unfortunately 
for Anne, of correspondingly low business ability. The 
Whiting fortune was therefore considerably disintegrated 
and Anne found herself by no means overburdened by her 
financial resources. John Pryor was rich, the marriage was 
brought about, and it was a complete failure, as anyone 



4 Fremont and '49 

could have foretold. Twelve years of misery followed for 
the beautiful Anne, when, through the influence of powerful 
friends, the Legislature of Virginia was persuaded to grant 
an absolute divorce, and at twenty-nine she was free. She 
thereupon married the French teacher against the desire of 
all her relatives, for what was an unknown wandering French- 
man to the proud old Whiting stock, connected by marriage 
with the Washington family? Having followed their hearts 
once with undesirable results, she now followed her own, 
while the old Major, two years later, at seventy-six, solaced 
himself by marrying his housekeeper. 

Some portion of her inheritance was left to her, and with 
this she and her new husband were able to lead the life they 
desired. John Charles had a fondness for the open air 
and for the study of ethnology, in which his wife was also 
interested. They invested in a traveller's equipment of 
that day, carriage, horses, camp outfit, servants, and so on, 
and began the investigation of the Indian tribes which still 
controlled millions of acres of land in the Southern States. 
Camping in the wilds, at times with the Indians, was now 
their occupation. Amid such scenes the future explorer 
received his prenatal impressions and influences, for it was 
in the prosecution of these journeys that he was born during 
a stop at Savannah, Georgia, January 21, 1813. In this 
same year of his birth, another person of immediate import- 
ance to his life and to this narrative comes briefly into the 
Fremont horizon. This was a young man of thirty-one, 
already a notable figure in the political arena of the country, 
and destined to become far more prominent during the whole 
of a long career: Thomas H. Benton. After breakfast on 
the morning of September 4, 1813, this brilliant young man 
had his historic encounter with the fiery Andrew Jackson, 
future President of the United States, then forty-six years of 
age. In Bigelow's excellent Life of Fremont he mentions 
that the parents chanced to pass the night previous to this 
affray at the inn where it took place, the balls from the pis- 




■^ a* ^ 



r. 



xn y 



Thomas H. Benton 5 

tols going through the room in which they happened to be 

sitting. This inn was the City Hotel, where Benton and 
his brother Jesse, the cause of the trouble, had stopped to 
avoid direct contact with Jackson who was at the other hotel, 
the Nashville Inn, across the square. But Jackson was 
bent on battle and sought the Bentons at the first oppor- 
tunity. This ill-feeling between the former friends arose 
over Jackson's having acted as opposing second in a duel 
in which Benton's brother was involved, during Benton's 
absence on business of Jackson's. Benton had denounced 
Jackson in violent terms, Jackson had sworn to horsewhip 
him, and the denouement was the above conflict. Jackson 
and Benton became friends again in after years. 

Fremont was seven months and ten days old at this 
moment, but the man who was to be so closely associated 
with him in years to come was not, apparently, yet aware of 
his existence. More than a quarter of a century must elapse 
before these two lives were to converge again, so strangely 
does the shuttle of life weave the mysterious fabric. The 
mind whose great slogan was to be westward expansion by 
"manifest destiny," and the mind that was to operate vigor- 
ously to aid that destiny, were not yet tuned to the work. 

Fremont the father was still bent on the return to France, 
and after the birth of a daughter and another son he laid 
his plans for this event, but he died in 181 8. The widow 
declined to go to France with his elder brother Francis and 
family, not wishing to leave her o\^^l country, and moved 
instead to Charleston, South Carolina, where young Fremont 
was put to the study of law with John W. Mitchell, who be- 
came so much interested in the lad that at fourteen he sent 
him for academic instruction to the preparatory school of 
Dr. John Roberton, a Scotchman educated at Edinburgh, 
whose specialty was fitting boys for Charleston College. 
This was another of those fortunate associations which con- 
tributed to Fremont's fine mental development. Roberton 
"was thoroughly imbued with classic learning, and lived an 



6 Fremont and '49 

inner life among the Greeks and Latins. Under his enthusi- 
astic instruction I became fond as himself of the dead lan- 
guages, and to me also they became replete with living 
images," remarks Fremont. In a preface to a book the 
master published in 1850, he extols the personal charm and 
remarkable intellect of his pupil, especially commenting on 
his ability in mathematics. He was imdoubtedly an excep- 
tionally clever boy with an attractive manner and was quick 
to learn. Roberton was under the impression, though, that 
Fremont graduated in 1830 from Charleston College, but, as 
Fremont himself relates, he was expelled for inattention to 
his studies and for insubordination. 

Thus early he exhibited the latter trait which was to lead 
him into difficulties, and be largely the cause of his missing 
some rewards which he deserved. But this spirit of insub- 
ordination was in reality only a profound independence of 
mind, admirable in a way, though sometimes out of place, 
and which in its turn served him well in the work of explora- 
tion when he was sole master. 

Fremont was never dull, and this present insubordination 
and inattention at school were due to his being in love with 
a beautiful Creole girl named Cecilia, not far from his own 
age, one of a family from Santo Domingo, with whom Fre- 
mont had been intimate from his fourteenth year. The 
nomadic strain in his blood impelled him to pass much time 
in the open air, with the two boys of this family, the two 
girls sometimes accompanying them, ranging the woods, 
islands, bays, on land and on sea, sailing, rowing, gunning, 
picnicking, till the schoolroom doubtless appeared a prison 
to him as it does to most vigorous boys. At seventeen he 
was "passionately in love" and devoted his time to Cecilia. 
"Those were the splendid outdoor days," he says enthusias- 
tically in his Memoirs, "days of unreflecting life when I 
lived in the glow of a passion that now I know extended 
its refining influence over my whole life." He was in the 
senior class when he was expelled, very reluctantly, by the 



Cruising South 7 

faculty. Always well prepared at recitation, he neglected 
their repeated warnings as to his unwarranted absences 
and finally there was nothing left but expulsion. There was 
no ill-feeling; Fremont acknowledged himself the trans- 
gressor. Several years later the faculty voluntarily revised 
their action and conferred on him the degrees of Bachelor 
and Master of Arts. 

Fremont, as he remarks, was thus dreaming away his 
youth when two books that came his way woke him up. 
One of these was a "chronicle of men who had made them- 
selves famous by brave and noble deeds, or infamous by 
cruel and base acts"; the other was a work on practical as- 
tronomy, in the Dutch language. He could not read Dutch, 
but the beautifully clear maps of the stars, and many lucid 
examples of astronomical calculations, fascinated him, and 
here began that love of astronomical work which, empha- 
sised by his close association later with eminent men in this 
field, resulted in the excellent, abundant, and accurate obser- 
vations that so distinctly differentiated his explorations from 
most of those which had gone before. With the aid of this 
book he spent his nights studying the constellations, and 
he also managed to learn from it the method of determining 
latitude and longitude. 

He was reaching the age when he must seek some definite 
occupation, and by the aid of Mr. Poinsett, a friend of the 
family who was now and always of great help to him, he 
secured a position as teacher of mathematics on the sloop 
of war Natcliez, which sailed in 1833 under Captain John 
P. Zantzinger for a three years' cruise along the coasts of 
South America. Fremont was twenty when the cruise be- 
gan, and at that age it must have strengthened his nomadic 
tendencies and have been another step on the way towards 
his future choice of occupation. On returning to Charles- 
ton, 1836, Fremont went before an examining board of the 
navy and passed for the post of professor of mathematics 
at Norfolk. This he then decUned and went to work instead 



8 Fremont and '49 

on a railway survey between Charleston and Augusta. A 
little later, 1837, ^^ had an opportunity to go under Captain 
Williams of the U. S. Topographical Corps as an assistant 
on surveys for a railway from Charleston to Cincinnati. 
This work was immediately along the lines that Fremont 
seems to have been bom for, and it was therefore entirely 
congenial. It is not surprising that he declares it was "a 
kind of picnic, with work enough to give it zest, and we were 
all sorry when it was over. " But while this particular piece 
of outdoor occupation was soon finished (autumn of 1837), 
Fremont had now fully entered upon the vocation for which 
he was temperamentally and intellectually best adapted and 
in which he was eventually to become distingmshed. Of 
his next engagement, that of assistant in ascertaining the 
extent and condition of the lands where Georgia, Tennessee, 
and North Carolina come together, held by the Cherokee, 
in a hurried reconnaissance under Captain Williams, in 
the winter of 1837, he remarks: 

The accident of this employment curiously began a period of 
like work for me among similar scenes. Here I found the path 
which I was destined to walk. Through many years to come the 
occupation of my life was to be among Indians and in waste 
places. There were to be no more years wasted in tentative 
efforts to find a way for myself. The work was laid out and it 
began here with a remarkable continuity of purpose.^ 

This first intercourse with the red men, a people with whom he 
was to become so familiar, was interesting. When he arrived 
with two other yoimg fellows at the Cherokee camp, the 
men were all drunk after a great carouse. It would not be 
prudent to appear among them under these circumstances, 

^Memoirs of My Life, by John Charles Fremont, etc., together with a 
sketch of the life of Senator Benton, in connection with Western Expansion, 
by Jessie Benton Fremont. A Retrospect of Fifty Years. Volume i., 
Chicago and New York, Belford Clark & Co., 1887 (no other volume 
published). 



Among the Cherokee 9 

especially as they were feeling hostile towards the impending 
removal to the West. The squaws, not being allowed the 
manly privilege, were sober, and hid the visitors in a log 
out-cabin half full of shucked com. "We did not pass a 
comfortable night. The shouts of the drunken Indians, and 
rats running over us, kept us awake, and we were glad when 
morning came. The night had been cold and our bath tub 
was the Nataheyle River. There was ice along the banks 
and the water in my hair froze into fretful quills." Some 
young men would have had enough, and would have taken 
the back track for home comforts after this introduction, 
but Fremont loved the life. Probably never then, nor in 
after years, was he more at home anywhere than by the 
camp fire, with the night wind sighing in the pines. It was 
his natural habitat. A duck is at home in the water, a sheep 
is at home on the hill, and a man is swayed in much the same 
way by ancestral impulses. Fremont went at this work with 
the vigour and skill that come from fitness. Sometimes they 
slept at an Indian cabin, sometimes with their pack-animals 
they penetrated through the forested moiintains where no 
waggon had gone. Their larder was supplied by killing the 
nut-fattened pigs which ranged the hills. Sometimes they 
witnessed bloody frays amongst the natives when strong 
drink got the upper hand of the red man, but this was excep- 
tional. "In their villages and in their ordinary farming 
life they lived peaceably and comfortably," and Fremont 
discovered what many others have found, that, "The 
depreciating and hurtful influence was the proximity of the 
whites." 

When this Cherokee land survey was ended, 1838, he 
went home for a brief visit to his mother, and then, by 
the kindness of his friend Mr. Poinsett, Secretary of War, 
he was given an appointment by President Van Buren as 
second lieutenant in the Topographical Corps of the army 
and was ordered to Washington. And here we are intro- 
duced to another character vital to tliis story, one more of 



10 Fremont and '49 

the remarkable personalities which it was Fremont's for- 
tune always to meet. It is another wandering Frenchman 
too, from that land where so many people think. This man 
was Jean Nicolas Nicollet, a scientist of the highest order, 
one who had an extraordinary influence on the future 
scientific attitude of the United States, as well as upon Fre- 
mont. Out of his meetings with several similar men at that 
time in Washington grew the now extensive organisation 
known as the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. His influence on Fremont was to enhance and 
crystallise the original tendencies toward exact science, and 
probably Nicollet is more than anyone else responsible for 
the accuracy of Fremont's exploratory operations, and the 
attention to barometric observations, to latitudes and 
longitudes, to botany and geology, and all the rest of it. 
Nicollet was also a man with an interesting beginning. Now 
forty-seven years old, he had begun his career, at the early 
age of ten, in his native town of Cluses in Savoy, by playing 
on flute and violin for social entertainments. Then followed 
apprenticeship with a watchmaker of Chambrey till he was 
eighteen. He studied mathematics, gained a prize, suc- 
ceeded in reaching Paris, where he studied astronomy and 
other sciences, received the decoration of the Legion of Honour 
before 1825, made money, speculated, and was crushed by 
financial ruin in which fell not only his own fortune, but the 
wealth of others who had trusted to his sagacity. He 
separated himself from these painful scenes and came to 
America, to New Orleans, probably in 1 832, that is at the 
age of forty-two. He was without acquaintances, but soon 
found them and secured their interest in his desire to explore 
the upper Mississippi, scientifically and topographically. 
Pierre Chouteau, the noted fur trader, and Major Taliaferro, 
Indian Agent at Fort Snelling, specially aided him and 
brought his scheme to the attention of the general govern- 
ment in 1833. Nicollet at length secured instruments as a 
loan and some letters of approval, but no financial help. 











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A Vocation Settled ii 

So determined was he, that, with the assistance of a 
few frontiersmen, he went ahead with his plans. Inadequate 
funds, and ill health resulting from exposure, were his handi- 
caps. He had not thought of himself or of financial gain. 
At last in 1838, shattered physically and with his resources 
exhausted, he proceeded for recuperation to Baltimore, where 
he had friends. From there he was called to Washington 
at the instance of Mr, Poinsett. The government at last 
sensed the importance of the operations he had been engaged 
in, especially as they disclosed vast agricultural possibilities. 
The future was made easy but the help came too late, as 
help has a habit of coming. With the government back of 
him, he was to extend the survey in the region between the 
Mississippi and Missouri, and Fremont was appointed to 
assist him. "Field work in a strange region, in association 
with a man so distinguished," says Fremont, "was truly 
unexpected good fortune, and I went off from Washington 
full of agreeable anticipations. " Fremont joined his chief 
at St. Louis, where the French scientist had gained many 
friends, especially among the clergy of the Catholic Church. 
He introduced Fremont everywhere, and they enjoyed sup- 
pers at the refectory, as well as social functions. In after 
years this friendly intercourse with Catholics here, and in 
Baltimore, where Nicollet also introduced him, was used, 
strangely enough, to Fremont's disadvantage. 

Life in the field with Nicollet occupied two seasons, 1838 
and 1839, and was all that Fremont anticipated. The first 
year M. de Montmort of the French Legation, and Eugene 
Flandin, a young New Yorker of French descent, with a skilled 
German botanist, Charles Geyer, were also of the party. The 
country being level, the camp oufit was transported on carts, 
with Canadian voyageurs as drivers. They went to Big Swan 
Lake, up the Waraju River, worked around the Pelican Lakes, 
and over the Coteau des Prairies, to the Red Pipestone 
Quarry, the limit of their western travel. Many Indians 
were about, but there was no trouble wdth any of them. 



12 Fremont and '49 

The Indians have a belief [says Fremont] that the Spirit of 
the Red Pipe Stone speaks in thunder and lightning whenever a 
visit is made to the Quarry. With a singular coincidence such 
a storm broke upon us as we reached it, and the confirmation of 
the legend was pleasing to young Renville and the Sioux who 
had accompanied us. . . . This famous stone, when we saw it, 
was in a layer about a foot and a half thick, overlaid by some 
twenty-six feet of red colored indurated sand-rock.^ 

Thence they went to the Lac qui Parle, taking in on the way 
the lake country of the Coteau des Prairies, and then to the 
Lesueur and Blue Earth rivers. Fremont had his first ex- 
perience, on this trip, with a prairie fire. Three of the party 
were off on a hunt and were awakened in the night by the 
crackling of flames, and found themselves surrounded. Im- 
mediately making a "back fire," they put their animals and 
their belongings in the bare spot thus secured, and were safe. 
The prairie fire is now a thing of the past in this country, 
but those who have seen the flames moving by day with 
race-horse speed, or filling the night sky with an ominous 
glow, will well remember the impressiveness of the sight. 
The party now returned to St. Louis and prepared for the 
work of the following year. With this expedition of 1839 
another important person in the education of Fremont comes 
in view. This is Etienne Provost, called /' homme des mon- 
tagnes, a man probably as familiar with the still, to the 
people at large, mysterious Far West as any man then living, 
not excepting Kit Carson or Jim Bridger. The association 
with Provost must have brought much knowledge to Fre- 
mont's quick intelligence. Geyer was again botanist, and 
they were accompanied by a French army officer. Captain 
BelHgny, merely to see the country. 

Steamboats were in operation on the Missouri, and while 
their ascent was often dubious of success, they usually 

'^ For information on Pipestone see Catlinite in Handbook of American 
Indians, Part I., U. S. Bur. Eth., Bulletin 30. 




fl. = 



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Early Missouri Steamboats 13 

arrived. On the second Nicollet expedition the party left 
St. Louis in April on the Antelope, and they were seventy 
days in reaching Fort Pierre (Chouteau), in the centre of 
what is now South Dakota, an average of about eighteen 
miles a day. The few steamboats on the Missouri before 
1840 were clumsy, rough-built craft, usually from 100 to 
130 feet long, twenty to thirty feet beam, seven feet depth 
of hold, and drawing from three to five feet of water. They 
had two boilers sometimes, but only one engine, of the high- 
pressure type. Five or six miles an hour was the maximum 
speed, and often the current opposing progress was so 
strong that the vessel would remain quite stationary for 
moments at a time. At night they were accustomed to 
tie up to a convenient bank, where the crew chopped 
wood, the only possible fuel, for the next day's run. Up 
to 1832 the keel-boat had been the cargo carrier, as 
well as the smaller "mackinaw. " The keel-boat was 
from fifty to seventy-five feet long, with a beam of fifteen 
or twenty feet, and thirty inches draught, and as it was 
operated by sheer muscle, by pole, tow-line, oars, or occa- 
sionally a sail, the loud panting, struggling, uncertain 
steamboat was an advance in labour saving that was 
heartily welcomed. 

Starting out from Fort Pierre, the expedition was immedi- 
ately in the depths of an Indian country, and they met with 
many of them, Yankton, Sisseton, and other Sioux, in one 
instance a village of about two thousand, but they had no 
difficulty. Like most Frenchmen, Nicollet wished to respect 
the desires of the natives, and so did his men. Nicollet 
attended solely to his work and paid no attention to hunting 
for sport or any of the numerous diversions of frontier life. 
Fremont received here some good schooling in the method 
of traversing an Indian country which doubtless held him 
to a sane and steady course in the coming experiences. 
At this time also he made the acquaintance of the 
buffalo. 



14 Fremont and '49 

This was an event [he remarks] on which my imagination 
had been dwelHng. Riding slowly up a short slope we came 
directly upon them. Not a hundred yards below us was the 
great, compact mass of animals, moving slowly along, feeding as 
they went, and making the loud, incessant grunting noise peculiar 
to them. There they were. . . . How I got down that short 
hillside I never knew. From the moment I saw the herd, I never 
saw the ground again till all was over. 



And then he discovered that the swift rush had carried him 
far out, and alone, on the wide and desolate plain, with the 
sun nearing the horizon. He attempted to hit the direction 
of the camp, and followed what he thought was a horse trail, 
but it was a buffalo track. About midnight he saw a 
rocket shoot up far in the south and knew that was camp, 
but he had the experience of spending the night with his 
horse under the stars. In the morning, Freniere, one of 
their mountain men, sent by Nicollet, found him and guided 
him back. He had time to roast a piece of buffalo meat on 
a stick and drink some coffee before the party proceeded. 
Meat roasted on a stick is excellent — there is no more 
palatable way of preparing it — and barring lack of full sleep, 
he was no worse for his adventure. Nicollet was the first 
to use the barometer in obtaining altitudes of the interior, 
and he was tireless in making his skilful observations for 
latitude and longitude. From Freniere, Fremont learned 
much in the way of plainscraft, for Freniere was a master in 
that line. 

The expedition of 1839 proceeded across the upland of 
Coteau du Missouri, to Medicine Knoll, then to Riviere a 
Jacques (James River) , past the " Lake of the Scattered Small 
Wood," up the valley of the Jacques, to Bone Hill, thence 
north to the Sheyenne valley and up this through enormous 
moving herds of buffalo, to Devil's Lake, the ultimate desti- 
nation. From here they went east nearly to Red River of 
the North, then down to the valley of the Sheyenne, near 



Plotting the Map 15 

where this stream curves northeast to Red River, thence 
south to the headwaters of the Minnesota, then on to the 
Lac qui Parle, the trading post of the Renvilles. In the late 
autumn after reconnoitering along the Minnesota and Missis- 
sippi Fremont with a detachment arrived in a bark canoe at 
Prairie du Chien. There a steamboat was about starting 
for St. Louis. Instead of taking this he concluded to 
rest a day or two and take the next one. "Next morning 
it was snowing hard, and the river was frozen from bank 
to bank. I had time enough while there to learn two things, 
one, how to skate, and the other, the value of a day." It 
took weeks of winter travel overland to reach St. Louis. 

Fremont went on to Washington to assist in the prepara- 
tion of the map, and learned of the death of his brother. 
His sister had died some time before, leaving his mother and 
himself now the sole representatives of the family. He went 
to Charleston for a visit, and then with Lieutenant Scammon 
took hold of the Nicollet map material. He now had the 
advantage of acquaintance with another exceptionally gifted 
scientific man, the superintendent of the Coast Survey, 
Hassler, who, like Nicollet, was a foreigner, having been bom 
in Switzerland, and like Nicollet he was an originator of 
scientific methods. The opportunity was not lost on Fre- 
mont, and the results of this association are apparent in all 
his future scientific work. Hassler was a notable and con- 
spicuous figure in the life of Washington. He and Nicollet 
were both bachelors. They arranged to live together at 
Hassler's house and took Fremont into the partnership, 
which shows, more than anything else, their esteem for him. 
The house was on Capitol Hill, and, as they had a competent 
French chef, the cuisine was of a high order. Nicollet caused 
an observatory to be built on top of the house where a series 
of observations was carried on nightly. The map work was 
done in the Coast Survey building near by, and all went 
smoothly along. 

The time was now 1840. Fremont was twenty-seven. 



i6 Fremont and '49 

The two life streams that so nearly touched back, in 1813 
at the Nashville Hotel, again flowed near. Senator Benton 
was profoundly interested in the Nicollet survey, and he 
came to the office to see how the map was progressing. It 
was an important moment for Fremont. He says: 

The results of our journeys between the two great rivers 
had suggested to him the same work for the broader field beyond 
the Missouri, ... In the course of his inquiries he dwelt on the 
unoccupied country beyond the Missouri and the existing uncer- 
tain and incomplete knowledge concerning it. The interview 
left on me a profound impression and raised excited interest. 
The ideas suggested remained fixtures in my mind. The thought 
of penetrating into the recesses of that wilderness region filled 
me with enthusiasm — I saw visions. Formerly I had been 
entirely devoted to my intended profession of engineering. . . . 
In this interview with Mr. Benton my mind had been quick to 
see a larger field and differing and greater results. It would be 
travel over a part of the world which still remained the New — the 
opening up of unknown lands; the making unknown countries 
known. . . . This interview with Mr. Benton was pregnant 
with results and decisive of my life. ^ 

This was the beginning of frequent visits and a friendship. 
Fremont and Nicollet were often at the Benton home, where 
they met Senators Linn and Dodge and other influential 
men from beyond the Alleghanies. The only drawback 
was the declining health of Nicollet, who nevertheless re- 
tained his enthusiasm on western explorations. He delayed 
writing his report, thinking he would later feel stronger, and 
meanwhile Fremont and Scammon carried out the plotting 
of the topographical notes on paper. 

The Bentons had five children, four daughters and a 
son, Randolph, the latter but twelve years of age. The 
second daughter Jessie was at a boarding-school in George- 
town, and, on the occasion of a school concert, Fremont 

' Memoirs, p. 65. 



Love at First Sight 17 

accompanied the eldest sister to hear it, and the most 
important influence of his Hfe burst upon him. Jessie was 
only fifteen, "just in the bloom of her girlish beauty," and 
she made an immediate impression. It was love at first 
sight and forever on both sides. Months passed before he 
saw her again when she came home for a vacation. Both 
Mr. and Mrs. Benton objected to this attachment, not 
because of any personal quality in Fremont, but because 
they did not approve of the unsettled existence of the wife 
of an army officer for their daughter, and they thought her 
too young for any serious decision of this sort. Fremont, 
however, continued a welcome visitor at the house. 

Nicollet did not recover his health, but grew worse, and 
the delayed report was further delayed. He suddenly wished 
to have the lower part of the Des Moines River surveyed to 
add to his map, and, at his request, Fremont was sent to 
secure the necessary data. Fremont was reluctant to go, 
the love affair with Miss Benton being the magnet, but 
accompanied by Geyer, the botanist, he struck out and soon 
accomplished the work. He intimates that the desire to 
have the Des Moines added to the map really originated with 
the Bentons with the hope that absence would diminish the 
ardour of the lovers, but, if this was so, the purpose failed. 
A year of probation had been agreed on. That proved too 
much, and to settle the matter, evidently in what they 
thought was the simplest way, one day, October 19, 1841, 
they slipped away and were married by the Reverend Father 
van Horseigh, a Catholic priest who would perform a mar- 
riage ceremony for meritorious persons without too many 
questions. 

Mrs. John Charles was seventeen and he was twenty- 
eight. He says of his wife: 

Her qualities were all womanly, and education had curiously 
preserved the down of a modesty which was innate. There had 
been no experience of life to brush away the bloom. She had 



1 8 Fremont and '49 

inherited from her father his grasp of mind, comprehending 
with a tenacious memory; but with it a quickness of perception 
and instant realization of subjects and scenes in their completed 
extent, which did not belong to his ; and with these, warm sym- 
pathies, a generous pity for human suffering, and a tenderness 
and sensibility that made feeling take the place of mind.^ 

Fremont now worked hard on the completion of the 
Nicollet map in order to get it out of the way, for greater 
things were projected. An expedition to the far region 
beyond the Missouri had taken definite shape. Nicollet 
was to be at the head, with Fremont as first assistant. It 
was an expedition to indicate and describe the line of emi- 
grant travel, and "the best positions for military posts, and 
to describe and fix in position the South Pass in the Rocky 
Mountains, at which this initial expedition was to terminate. 
At this time the South Pass, at the head of the Platte River, 
was the one most available for our emigration and already 
used." Benton, who was the actual promoter and power 
behind this expedition, it being a part of his "manifest 
destiny" idea of western expansion, perceived regretfully by 
New Year's Day, 1842, that the noble Nicollet never again 
would be able to ride the western plains, and he decided to 
make Fremont, who was partly at least the originator of the 
plan, the leader of the party. Fremont says, "with the 
New Year began my joint work with Mr. Benton in behalf 
of our western territories." Just how much this meant 
would be interesting to know now in the light of future 
developments, some of which have called down upon Fre- 
mont much adverse criticism, in spite of the fact that he 
always appears to have had in view the best interests of his 
country. It shows, for one thing, that Benton and Fremont 
were close together in all that followed, close in the deter- 
mination not to lose California to the United States by back- 
wardness and lack of decision. Benton always considered 

^ Memoirs, p. 67. 



(T.S.GKOC.RAl'HICAL SUH\'l-;\-S WKST OK THE lOO':" MERinTAN-. 



GEOGRAPHICAL REPORT 




The British Idea of Western North America in 1782 

Reduced from Thomas Jcffery's Map 
Shows the Peninsula only, called California, while Drake's name of Ne v Albion is given to what the Spaniards claimed as California Aha. The Columbia River is indicated as the " River of 
the West," and another course for the River of the West is given farther south, flowing into the Pacific at San Francisco Bay. Captain Gray entered the mouth of the 

Columbia ten years after this map is dated, or in 1792 



The Road to India 19 

that we had surrendered our just rights by allowing the 
boundary with Spain to be settled at the Sabine and Red 
rivers, in 18 19, and he dreamed of getting this land back 
in some honourable way. He was opposed to the annexation 
of Texas as long as Texas was at odds with Mexico, but his 
keen judgment told him that, with the loose hold Mexico 
had on California, the constant friction, and rumours of inde- 
pendence, something was about to occur, and the relations 
between Mexico and the United States were already in a 
precarious state. He also was certain that Great Britain 
had an eye on the Bay of San Francisco, and on California 
as a whole, and evidently he intended that our government 
should be prepared and ready for developments as far as he 
could accomplish it. 

Fremont himself was thoroughly equipped to enter upon 
the great work of his life. The opportunity was in his 
hand of bringing to the attention of the country the character 
a'^d value of the enormous stretch of territory lying unoccu- 
pied between the Missouri and the Pacific, a large part of 
it foreign. His operations in the next few years fall in one of 
ti"". ", most interesting periods of the history of this country. 
Benton, pointing to the sunset, exclaimed: 

" There is the East, 
There lies the road to India. " 

Fremont turned his face that way and halted only when the 
Golden Gate was won. 





CHAPTER II 

CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS 

The Great Wilderness and its Six Formidable Barriers — Some Mythical 
Rivers — The Original Inhabitants — Arrival of the Spaniards — Old Towns 
in New Mexico — California Alta Settlement by Missions — The Remark- 
able Entrada of Padre Escalante — American Invaders — The Northwest 
versus British — The Southwest versus Mexicans — California versus the 
Field — California Alta Adrift — Who Gets California? 

WHILE the main facts of the broad stretch of North 
American wilderness lying between the Missouri 
and the Pacific which so enthused the minds of 
Senator Benton and his young son-in-law, John Charles 
Fremont, in 184 1, were then known to roving trappers and fur 
traders, and of course locally to the various tribes of natives, 
it was nevertheless in large measure a land of mystery. No 
accurate map existed, no map at all of a great portion, and 
many of the salient characteristics were as yet unfathomed. 
Especially was that part spreading between the Wasatch 
and the Sierra Nevada, south of Snake River, uninvesti- 
gated, though several trapping parties had ventured within 
its desolate expanse. Ogden, of the Hudson Bay Company, 
in 1825, was first on record to reach the banks of the river 
Fremont later named Humboldt, at first called Mary's 
River, then Ogden's. Jedediah Smith had twice, in 1826-28, 
crossed the desert valleys to and from California, and 
Joseph Walker, in 1833, had gone down the Humboldt and 
over the Sierra to Monterey, then back the next year by a 
more southern course. 

The general topographic features encountered in going 
westward from the Missouri across the immense new country 

20 



U.S.PA.CIF1C B.REXP & SURVEYS 




Cape 



Keduced Stction oPa 
■SKETCU 

OF THE 

WES TEBN PART OF THE CON 



IS^ORTH AMEUl 

Between. Latitudes 35' and 52 

181S. 

Seals of Sta.«Ma?s 



The title states that it ( 



US PA.CIFIC RREXP & SURVEYS 



LT WABJ.TvlIS la-JJaiP- -PLA.TE TF 




-WESTERN PART OF THE CONTJN^EJSTT 

O F 

:N0RTH AMEUICA 

Between Latitudes 35' andS^N*?' 
1818. 

ScsU of Sli'Macs 



ThUiruf) otan CJctenl orCeurUry inOuding more than lum/y dtgrcw 
orLaliludi.and Wy orLongiixuLt^as origimiUy dram under tht 
inspecUon orwuiiam.HalorEjilvdTC Surveyor of On Untied Stala 
forOte Urriiorles of Mtssouri andlUmou.and was by lumpresen.- 
ucL to tlu General Land OrKce Janwtry tl'.' /J/S.Il Lsprobatly 
th£ Twasl correctMap ofOte country rlow extant . 
OenliancLOffice VfJiui ISIS. .Signed. JbsiaJiMeiQt 



RoberieiuxO S.Topl-ETij. del. 



The title states tha 



The Far West as Understood in 1818 

By William Rector, U.S. Surveyor for Missouri and Illinois 

jitends north to 52°, but in this reproduction from Warren's Me 

See Bonneville Map at p. 24 and Map at p. 8g 



: it barely goes to 48° 



r^ 






/J 




£^owledge of the Far West in iS^u 

lti« inylhiral rinn ara (lv«n, lh« Rto I^t Mongot, Kio Timp^nogus anJ Kia lluciiavcniurA. Lake Salado h 
Sec llunu«\tll< Map A, racine |i j«, auj Map U (acint p. ^. »hich woe the fini to thow lb« comet Capo^rap 



kia Iluciia.enlura. Lake Salado U Serler Uak«. "J Lake Tlapuo«« U Gwat S^ Uk* 
the finI to thow llx comet eopojrapb^. lh»u«h G**'UV lljri. »a.. Back a( M fXkl 



Mythical Rivers 21 

were, first the Great Plains with an average elevation above 
the sea of about two thousand feet, considered by Pike, 
Long, and other prominent men of the early quarter of the 
nineteenth century a "Great American Desert," which they 
believed would forever form an effective barrier between 
the settlements of the United States and those of Mexico. 
This desert has vanished; but in the beginning the plains 
actually offered a considerable barrier, the first of six, against 
exploration. They rolled away to the beckoning West, mile 
upon mile like a mighty petrified sea, to the very foothills 
of the second repelling barrier, the imposing, ponderous 
chain of the Rocky Mountains extending northerly and 
southerly across the heart of the wilderness, dividing it into 
almost equal parts. At a central locality of this great in- 
terior mountain system, six long rivers find their source : the 
Columbia, the Colorado, the Rio Grande, the Arkansas, the 
Platte (described as a thousand miles long and nine inches 
deep) , and the mighty Missouri. These streams, beginning so 
near together, immediately diverge, and four of them sweep 
away to different seas, parting from the dry land at points 
widely separated. Each, therefore, possesses an enormous 
valley or drainage basin. 

Before 1830 other great rivers were imagined to exist in 
the region west of Salt Lake, the Buenaventura taking its 
rise in the Rocky Mountains and flowing westward through 
a "Lake Salado" to the Bay of San Francisco, evidently 
based on the Sevier, the Rio Timpanogos, and the Rio Los 
Mongos, based respectively on the Humboldt, and perhaps 
on the Owyhee, or possibly on an imagined extension east- 
ward of Rogue River. Both of the latter fabulous streams 
were supposed to rise in a "Lake Timpanogos" (Utah Lake 
originally, but a name later applied to Salt Lake) and like 
the Buenaventura they flowed into the Pacific. On the 
map of North America by A. Finley (Philadelphia, 1826) 
the three mythical rivers are confidently drawn from source 
to finish, though maps of earlier date do not show them. 



22 Fremont and '49 

The Buenaventura was the last of these myths to expire. 
Even after the Sevier was known to sink, it was imagined 
at some point to rise again and flow on to the ocean, and it 
was this fancy which kept the Buenaventura myth alive. 
Farnham tells of a Captain Young whose "supposition was 
that by travelling westward he should strike the Severe 
River at some point where it rose from the sands, and follow- 
ing its course, should be led to the Bay of San Francisco." 
Captain Young lost all his animals and five men. "This 
was the last attempt," continues Farnham, "to explore this 
awful waste. And long will it be ere man can know the 
silent gloom and horrors of its dreadful depths."^ It was 
the journeys of Jedediah Smith (1826-28) and of Joseph 
Walker (1833-34), the latter one of Bonneville's aids, which 
eliminated the mythical rivers; and Bonneville does not 
indicate them on his map. ^ Benton claimed the honour for 
Fremont, 3 but it hardly belongs directly to him, though it 
may be said that until Fremont traversed the country 
there was no definite scientific decision on the matter; 
after his expedition nothing was possible to the most active 
imagination. 

Just beyond the crest of the Rocky Mountains in the 
central region is a series of large, beautiful valleys ranging 
from north to south and called the North, Middle, and South 
Parks, and the San Luis Valley, formerly also spoken of 
as a "park." South Park in very early days was known 
as Bayou Salade. Following these came the immediate 
valley of the formidable Colorado River, one of the most 
extraordinary features of the wilderness, the third, and the 
most effective, barrier of all against exploration; a line of 

* Travels in California and Oregon, by T. J. Farnham, p. 324, published 
1849. Farnham was there in 1840-41. 

^ See Bonneville's map published in the Carey, Lea & Blanchard edition 
of 1837 of Irving's Bonneville, reproduced on a small scale in Pacific Rail- 
way Reports, vol. xi., f . p. 34, and in this volume facing page 24. The original 
was not to be found in 1858. 

3 Benton, Thirty Years' View, vol. ii., p. 580. 



Impassable Canyons 23 

deep, barren, rock-bound chasms called in Spanish "canons'^ 
(in English the fi being rendered ny), one, now called Grand 
and Marble, 283 miles long, reaching a depth of between 
5000 and 6000 feet, and a width of more than twelve miles, 
cut down by the rapid river through a poorly watered coun- 
try, and presenting for about a thousand miles as difficult 
an obstruction to the traveller as could be devised. It was 
only at a few places far apart that a practicable passage from 
one side to the other existed, and the conditions are not 
much different to-day. Together with the aridity and con- 
sequent scarcity of springs, these canyons, from whose 
precipitous cliffs one might hear the roar of the river, and 
even plainly see its seething waters while dying of thirst,^ 
presented an appalling obstacle; they were universally 
dreaded and avoided, fearful tales of their dangers and 
mysteries being in vogue, the lower gorges being the last 
mystery of the wilderness to be fully explained. ^ 

Farther west came the splendid summits of the Wasatch, 
the fourth barrier, which in itself formed the eastern rim of 
the fifth barrier, the Great Basin, where flowed the mythical 
rivers until the discovery that all rivers of this remarkable 
table-land, 4000 to 5000 feet above sea-level, flow nowhere in 
particular but perforce mount vaporously into the air, or 
end in dry earth, or in lakes which themselves are limited 
by evaporation or by subterranean outlets. Some of these 
lakes lie at the foot of the sixth, and last, great barrier, the 
stupendous snowy chain of the Sierra Nevada, the "White 
Saw," the limit, on the sunset side, of the vast dry table- 
land, so completely shut off from the ocean, where, in a by- 
gone age, lakes of far different aspect, of vast depth, and of 

' Jim Bridger had seen the canyons. A friend of his, E. L. Berthoud, wrote 
me: " Bridger would tell in camp of the canon of the Colorado and Green 
River and of the almost utter impossibility of getting water from either canon, 
altho in full sight of an abundance of it, which I bitterly experienced when 
trying to explore down Green River, south of Wliite River in Utah in 1861." 

' See The Romance of the Colorado River and A Canyon Voyage, by F. S. 
Dellenbaugh. Putnams. 



24 Fremont and '49 

enormous extent, flung their waves at the foot of the glaci- 
ated peaks. ^One of these long departed seas, whose old 
shore lines are yet easily traced along the mountain slopes, 
is called by geologists Lake Bonneville,^ thus perpetuating 
a name Washington Irving in his delightful book on Bonne- 
ville^ applied to the remnant of the departed waters now 
known as Great Salt Lake. This remnant, resembling the 
Dead Sea of Palestine in the density of its water, is at an 
altitude of 4218 feet (instead of 1300 feet below the ocean 
as lies the surface of the Dead Sea), with a mean depth of 
less than twenty feet. Immediately to the west of it is the 
nearest approach to a real desert to be found within the 
United States, the finality of the original extensive "Great 
American Desert," doubtless itself destined to blossom in 
the future, a portion of the Great Basin table-land, all of 
which is extremely arid. The Great Basin is by no means 
a level tract. It is broken by numerous north-and-south, 
short, rough mountain ranges lying side by side, some of 
which have an altitude of 8000 feet above the ocean; that 
is to say 4000 feet above the general level of the Basin. 
These ranges, opposed transversely to the direct line of 
travel to the Pacific Slope, united with the lack of water, and 
the dryness of the air, made journeys there extremely diffi- 
cult and hazardous. One valley on the western border is 
partly below sea-level and in the days of '49 received the 
title of Death Valley from a party of emigrants who lost 
their way in it with terrible results.^ 

The Sierra Nevada is a range of extr'eme grandeur and 

' "History of Lake Bonneville," by G. K. Gilbert, in Report of U. S. 
Geological Survey, 1880-81, and U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin, N. S., No. 19, 
191 1. Lake Lahontan in north-western Nevada was another of these ancient 
seas. 

''Adventures of Captain Bonneville, by Washington Irving (Putnams, 
New York), first published in 1837, by Carey, Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 
with the title. The Rocky Mountains; or Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in 
the Far West, digested from the Journal of Captain B. L. E. Bonneville, etc., by 
Washington Irving. In two volumes. 

i Death Valley in '49, by Wm. L. Manly. San ]os6, Cal., 1894. 



Crops by Irrigation 25 

be auty, and some of its valleys, like the Yosemite and the 
E.etch-Hetchy, are among the most majestic spectacles of 
the world. It protects from the east winds the long, cen- 
tral, fruitful valleys of the San Joaquin and the Sacramento, 
which form the very heart of California. On the west these 
valleys are guarded by another range, parallel with the coast, 
and consequently called the Coast Range. This and the 
Sierra Nevada unite near the 40th parallel and together 
they extend on northwards as the Cascade Range. All 
the country east of this Sierra Nevada Cascade Range as 
far as the looth meridian is arid, the rainfall is slight, but 
owing to the large number of mountains that receive on 
their heights a considerable amount of precipitation, especi- 
ally in winter, there are many permanent rivers and creeks 
the waters of which are now utilised for purposes of irriga- 
tion. This was not a modem idea; the natives of the New 
Mexican region practised irrigation centuries before the 
arrival of the whites, and the remains of old canals are still 
to be found. The streams frequently flow through deep 
canyons in such a way that the General Government has 
been able, by constructing huge dams, to back the water 
into depressions above, creating, in this manner, large and 
deep reservoirs by which millions of acres of land are being 
brought under cultivation, and the "desert" made to pro- 
duce crops prolific and of high quality, where the opponents 
of western expansion declared the country was not worth a 
pinch of snuff. Dry farming is another method of redeeming 
lands heretofore believed to be worthless for agricultural 
operations, and vast areas are made useful by this simple, 
constant cultivation of the surface of the dry soil. 

The climate is variable, everywhere changing with alti- 
tude, with relation to the major mountain systems, and 
with proximity to the Pacific. Temperatures average 
higher on the Pacific Slope than on the Atlantic Coast for 
the same latitudes. A remarkable feature is the extreme 
differences in altitudes and in temperatures. From 276 



26 Fremont and 49 

feet below sea-level in Death Valley, and 270 feet below in 
the Salton Basin, there is a range up to a multitude of peaks 
which climb beyond the 14000-foot mark, the largest number 
of the high peaks being in the State of Colorado. 

At first this enormous territory contained innumerable 
wild animals; so many that for a long time men believed 
there could be no limit to the quantity that might indis- 
criminately be killed. On the plains and ranging across 
the Rocky Mountains as far as Green River and the head 
of Snake River, there roamed millions of buffalo {Bison 
Americanus), and when the beaver, which first tempted the 
Eiiropean into the wilderness, began to diminish in numbers, 
the buffalo were more specially hunted, till at last they were 
slaughtered by the thousand merely for their hides, tallow, 
and tongues.^ There were also bear in abundance, the one 
called "white bear," now known as grizzly, being the most 
dangerous; in the early days almost proof against the low- 
powered rifles, muzzle-loading too, with which the trappers 
were provided. Almost every other kind of animal known 
on this continent was found here : deer, elk, mountain sheep, 
goats, cougars (the so-called mountain lions), wild cats, 
wolves, lynx, rabbits, pine and sage hens, grouse, turkeys, 
quail, trout and other fish, lizards of many sizes up to the 
Gila monster {Heloderma suspectum), a poisonous creature 
two feet long much dreaded, scorpions, centipedes, tarantu- 
las, several species of rattlesnake, and, on the coast, seals 
and sea lions. 

In the way of vegetation there were some extraordinary 
species to keep pace with the animals. The most remark- 
able is the giant ancient trees, the oldest reaching back 
for their beginning more than a thousand years (1335 by 
actual count of the annual rings of one) . These grow in the 
Sierra Nevada in a limited area and have been named 

» The Extermination of the American Bison, by William T. Homaday, 
Washington, 1889. Also, Reports of the American Bison Society, New York 
Zoological Park. 




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Singular Trees 2^ 

Sequoia gigantea,^ after Sequoyah (Latinised) the inventor 
of the Cherokee syllabary. They rise to a height of more 
than three hundred feet. The allied and more abundant 
redwood {Sequoia sempervirens) also grows to an unusual 
height. It is seldom found more than twenty-five miles 
from the ocean. Another indigenous tree of great import- 
ance is the pifion or pinyon {Pinus edulis), a small pine, 
bearing in profusion an exceedingly palatable and nutritious 
nut, upon which the tribes of its habitat rely for a part of 
their subsistence. Like the sequoia the pinyon is confined 
to a limited area, though an area of considerable extent. 
Many singular plants exist: cacti, yucca, etc., and on the 
desert-like plains of southern Nevada and southern Cali- 
fornia, is one of the strangest, the tree yucca {Clistoyucca 
arborescens) , or Joshua tree, illustrated on opposite page, 
growing to a height of about twenty feet.^ 

The human population was large but widely scattered. 
It belonged to the American race, usually spoken of as 
Indians in this country in popular language, and Amerinds-' 
scientifically. The various groups are now classified mainly 
by language affiliation. The great plains were dominated 
by the mobile Siouan tribes with their portable tepees; 
the Shoshonean stock occupied the district from the crest 
or divide of the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevada 
north of 37°, while below that parallel were two groups of 
Athapascans, Apache, and Navajo, with various tribes of 
house-building Amerinds of sedentary habits classed to- 
gether as Pueblos (or Puebloans), not linguistically, for their 
languages differ, but because of the similarity of their habits 
and villages. One group, the Moki (Moquis, Hopi) is 
classified linguistically with the great Shoshonean stock. 
In California Alta an astonishing number of different 

' Before the glacial period the sequoias existed on three continents. 

' Trelease describes it as "the largest and most imposing of the Yucceas of 
the United States." " The Yuccea;," by William Trelease, p. 42, Thirteenth 
Annual Report Missouri Botanical Garden. 

' Amerind is a contraction of American Indian. 



2S Fremont and '49 

stocks was discovered, each with only a small representa- 
tion. These people were, in the beginning, mild mannered, 
and, from their use of roots to eke out their supplies, they 
were often contemptuously spoken of as "Diggers,"^ the 
white man forgetting that his own race also belongs to the 
diggers. But most of the aboriginal people west of the Mis- 
souri lived by the chase, except south of the 37th parallel, 
where maize, beans, melons, squash, peppers, peaches, cot- 
ton, figs, etc., were widely cultivated. The peaches and 
figs were introduced by the Spaniards; the other things 
were grown from earliest times, before the coming of the 
Europeans. 

The Puebloans dwelt in substantial houses, constructed 
of stone, or of sun-dried brick known as adobes, in valleys, 
canyons, and on the summits of cliff -bound tables known as 
mesas. At the same time there were innumerable ruins 
of former habitations, some of which were the result of 
shifting residence, while others had been the homes of groups 
which had altogether disappeared. Ruins are often found 
in the huge cavelike recesses of cliffs and of canyon walls, 
peculiar to a certain sandstone formation, and eminently 
inviting to a people on the defensive. These have been 
called cliff-dwellings, the former occupants Cliff-dwellers, 
and some people are under the impression that they were a 
mysterious race different from the other Amerindians, 
which was not the case. Ancient house ruins can be traced 
all along the course of the Colorado and Green rivers from 
below the mouth of the Virgin to, at least, White River, 
with a wide range on both sides. ^ 

In the native occupied villages of the South-west the 
country possessed actual permanent settlements long before 
the arrival of the whites, and when they finally came in 
search of *'The Seven Cities," fabulously rich, these little 

' Possibly the term was corrupted from a tribal name Diegueno. 
' See The North-Americans of Yesterday, by F. S. Dellenbaugh. Putnams. 
A list of tribes and stocks is given in an appendix. 





-:^^^ 



>^-- 







Views of Spruce Tree House 

Cliff dwellini;, Mancos C.invoii. Misa VcriU-, Colorado 
Photographs by John Wethcrill 



Coronado 29 

towns, ungilded and unadorned, were a cruel disappoint- 
ment. Yet in after years they were welcome places of 
refuge for many a trapper or hunter where he could obtain 
food and shelter, without price if necessary. Hospitality 
was a part of the Amerindian ritual destroyed only by the 
neglect or refusal of the whites to reciprocate. The Pueblo- 
ans had plenty of maize, watermelons, beans, squash, etc., 
and, after the coming of the Spaniards, sheep and horses. 

It was as early as 1540 that Coronado and his army broke 
their way through from Mexico and made headquarters at 
Tiguex,' after a long siege of the place. From Tiguex the 
country was examined and Coronado himself travelled east- 
ward almost to the present site of Kansas City. Within a 
half century others followed to "New Mexico" and before 
1680 numbers of Spaniards were living in the Rio Grande 
valley, and the padres had founded missions and built 
substantial churches. In 1680 the discontent of the natives 
developed into a rebellion, so well directed that every 
foreigner was either killed or driven from the country. With 
Europeans this energy against a foe would have been com- 
mended; with Amerinds it was classed as treachery. The 
Europeans were, in their own opinion, the only people with 
rights, and they soon came again with a more powerful force. 
The Spaniards then remained masters of the region for about 
one hundred and fifty years, till 1848, when we annexed them. 
Seventy-five years before this insurrection Santa Fe was 
founded, by Juan de Onate, and it has been the chief town 
(though not now the largest) of New Mexico ever since. 
Four years in advance of Henry Hudson's discovery of 
Manhattan Island, that is to say, in 1605, this capital of the 
Far South-west was established. The church shown at page 
30 which, somewhat modified by the storms and disintegra- 
tion of three centuries, is still standing, is stated to have 

' A village situate in 1540 not far below the present town of Socorro on the 
Rio Grande. It has erroneously been placed by modem writers at Berna- 
lillo. 



30 Fremont and '49 

been built in 1582, by some in 1545. While this is not 
probable, it is not impossible, for there were earnest padres 
with Coronado, in 1540-42, some of whom remained. What 
they did is not recorded. 

From Santa Fe the northern country was early examined 
for a considerable distance, Ribera reaching a point on 
Grand River, and he may have gone farther. Meanwhile 
the indomitable French were advancing from the north-east, 
and in 1682, three quarters of a century after the Spaniards 
had settled in Santa Fe, the Sieur de la Salle came down the 
Mississippi and made the claim at its mouth to "Louisiana" 
which included everything the Spaniards and British did 
not already hold. Another nobleman, the Sieur Pierre 
Gaulthier de Varennes de la Verendrye, in 1738, entered 
from the Manitoba region and came as far south as the 
Mandan villages, near what is now Bismarck in North 
Dakota. ^ His two sons arrived in 1 742 and proceeded from 
the Mandans west, and south-west, to the Rocky Mountains, 
which they reached in the early part of 1743. It is probable 
that they went as far as the Wind River range. In 1739 
two other Frenchmen went up the South Platte for a long 
distance, so the French, by right of exploration, had a strong 
hold on all the Mississippi Valley. 

A half century later, 1793, Mackenzie succeeded in 
crossing the continent by way of Peace River Pass and 
arrived on the shore of the Pacific not far from Queen 
Charlotte Sound. ^ This was the first known crossing of the 
continent by white men except the far southern journey of 
Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions, from some point 
on the Texas coast to the west coast of Mexico. Reports of 
a very large ' * River of the West," sometimes called the Oregon 

^ " Verendrye's Journal in English and French," by Douglas Brymner, In 
Report on Canadian Archives, 1889; also UOuest Canadien, Sa decouverte par 
le Sieur de la Verendrye, by L'Abb^ G. Uugas. Montreal, Cadieux & Derome, 
1896. 

' Voyages, by Alexander Mackenzie. Barnes & Co., reprint, N. Y., 1903. 




Church of San Miguel, Santa Fe, New Mexico 

As it was before the hurricane of 1872. The lower is now lacking. One of the oldest 

structures in the United States. Said to have been built in 1582 ; rebuilt, 1710. 

Santa Fe was founded 1605 



River of the West 31 

after a mention of it in Jonathan Carver's book, ^ flowing to 
the western sea, figured on maps at least as early as 1753, 
though the place of its exit to the ocean could not be deter- 
mined. Heceta, a Spanish navigator, found a bay in 1775 
in latitude 46° 9', with a strong current, and eddies, which 
led him to surmise that there was a large river or a strait 
at the place. As he failed to settle the problem he cannot 
be said to have discovered the Columbia. Other experi- 
enced navigators, like Vancouver and Meares, passed along 
the coast and declared that there were breakers all the way, 
which was true, for the Columbia presents a wide, dangerous 
bar, with a line of surf, hazardous to-day after thousands 
of dollars have been spent on improving the entrance. 
Even on a very calm and beautiful morning in summer 
when I approached this bar on a steamship from the sea, 
the breakers looked threatening. It remained for an Ameri- 
can trading captain, Robert Gray, to solve the question. 
He had assured Vancouver that there was a river at the 
place, but that wise and admirable explorer made a mistake 
this time and refused to agree with Gray who thereupon 
sailed to the bar and put his ship through a passage in the 
breakers, discovered from the masthead, into the mouth of 
the beautiful river, in 1792, naming the stream after his 
vessel which was the first to enter. This was a fortunate 
circumstance for the United States as this discovery of the 
mouth of the River of the West became a strong point in 
the dispute over the ownership of Oregon. 

The United States, rather unexpectedly, in 1803, acquired 
all the French rights to Louisiana, the bounds of which, 
like the bounds at that time of all other western American 
territory, were unformulated and vague. Having this vast 
tract for our own it was imperative to ascertain its char- 
acter; imperative to explain and defend, against the little 
minds, the spending of seven times the sum originally ap- 
propriated for the purchase of the mouth of the Mississippi. 

* Travels throughout the Interior Parts of North America, 1778. 



32 Fremont and '49 

The government thereupon sent Captains Lewis and Clark 
on their memorable and now well-known quest. ^ Their 
line of travel was up the Missouri, across the mountains 
to the head of the Columbia, down that river to its mouth, 
and back by practically the same route. This was in 1805- 
1806. This exploration formed another link in our claims 
to the Oregon country. 

Up to 1769 California Alta, though definitely claimed by 
the Spaniards, at least as far as Cape Mendocino, had been 
neglected, but in that year Captain Portola and Padre 
Junipero (Miguel Jose) Serra were sent from California 
Baja (Peninsular California) to establish settlements in the 
form of missions in this Far North. The first footing was at 
San Diego. From that point mission after mission was 
founded, the natives brought to prayer and song, albeit 
by the lash and sword to a great extent, and the most unique 
era in the history of California was begun. Eighteen es- 
tablishments were soon in operation, before the opening 
of the nineteenth century in fact, while three others were 
later constructed. Gardens, vineyards, acres of grain-fields, 
thousands of head of sheep, cattle, and horses, surrounded 
each settlement, and the wonderful fertility of the Cali- 
fornian soil was quickly demonstrated. 

Between these missions and those of the New Mexican 
region there was no road of communication. In order to find 
one, two priests of the Franciscan Order, which had charge 
of all missions, Padre Escalante and Padre Dominguez, left 
Santa Fe, July 29, 1776, for Monterey. They proceeded 
northward into what is now the State of Colorado, possibly 
with the intention of passing the great barrier of the canyons 
of the Colorado River at the crossing afterwards named for 
Captain Gunnison, the same point where the " Spanish Trail " 

^ The Original Journals of Lewis and Clark, by Reuben Gold Thwaites, 
Dodd, Mead & Co.; The Trail of Lewis and Clark, by Olin D. Wheeler, 
Putnams; History of the Expedition under Command of Captains Lewis and 
Clark, Biddle edition reprint by Barnes and Co., New York. 





Little Zion Valley, Virgin River 

Character of the region of South-Western Utah, through which Fremont passed 
on his return in 1844 



t 



'~',*t,l%ittilSttUi 



... 'is£5i»tv>:-..^- 




1 






The Great Temple Butte, Virgin River, Southern Utah 

Allituiic 7500 feet above sea 



Hscalante's Entrada 33 

established in 1830 by the American, WilHam Wolf skill, went 
over, about on latitude 39° ; but if this was so they failed to 
strike the proper route, and continued north, against the 
remonstrances of some Utes they met, to the next possible 
crossing, Wonsits Valley, where they put themselves on the 
western bank of what they called the Rio Buenaventura 
in about latitude 40° 15'. Going down to the Rio de San 
Cosme (Uinta branch) a short distance above its mouth, 
they followed its valley westward to the crest of the Wasatch 
barrier, and descended into the Great Basin at Utah Lake, 
which they called Nuestra de la Merced and which Escalante 
says the natives called Timpanogo. 

They heard of Salt Lake but did not go there. Instead 
they turned south, travelled along the western flanks of the 
Wasatch, crossing the Santa Isabel River (Sevier), till they 
came to the neighbourhood of the present town of St. George 
on the Virgin River. Discovering now that they could not 
reach Monterey before the winter should set in, they decided 
to make their way back to Sante Fe. The interminable line 
of the canyons of the Colorado, a part of which Escalante 
had examined the previous year from the Moki towns, 
again interposed, and it was only after many weary efforts, 
and the killing of some of their horses for food, that they at 
last came to the Ute Ford — the existence of which Escal- 
ante probably knew — the only practicable crossing for horses 
between Gunnison Crossing and the foot of the Grand 
Canyon, a distance of several hundred miles. This ford, 
situated about where the Colorado River is cut by latitude 
37°, used for centuries by the Utes, Navajos, and other na- 
tives, ever since Escalante's crossing, has been called chiefly 
El Vado de los Padres, or, in English, The Crossing of the 
Fathers. There was a good trail from there to the Moki 
Towns, and once at the latter place their troubles were over; 
plenty of food could be obtained and the trails were plain. ' 

' S. V. Escalante y F. A. Domingiiez, Diario . . . paradescuhrir el Camitto 
desde . . . Santa Fc del Nucvo Mexico al de Monterey, Docs, para la Historia 

3 



34 Fremont and '49 

In this great circuit through the mountains, Escalante had 
traversed an enormous territory, where, beyond Grand River, 
it is probable no white man had ever been before. Nearly 
three quarters of a century later, Fremont crossed the trail 
of these padres several times, and, on the return from Cali- 
fornia in 1844, he went over it from about Mountain Meadows 
( Vegas de Santa Clara) to Utah Lake and the Uinta Valley. 

Santa Fe, by the year 1800, had developed considerably 
and had a population of more than 4000, while, in the sur- 
rounding valleys, thousands of Spaniards, Mexicans, and 
Puebloans were cultivating crops mainly by irrigation; 
and they held large flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle and 
horses. They sorely needed manufactured articles from 
the United States. The road to Mexico was long and 
difficult, duties were high, and nothing much was manu- 
factured in Mexico anyway. Several Americans, discovering 
this situation, inaugurated some small trading operations, 
as early as 1802, which proved profitable. The New 
Mexican people welcomed the traders because they could 
satisfy their wants; the governor, who was also the govern- 
ment, welcomed them because by means of exorbitant 
duties and confiscations on pretexts he grew rich. The 
trade increased rapidly. The boundary was not yet outlined 
and Lieutenant Pike came out for the government in 1806, 
ostensibly to find where Red River might be. Instead of 
looking for Red River, however, he struck north, from where 
Pueblo now stands, into the mountains in winter, with his 
party absolutely unprepared for such conditions, and, 
floundering around in a blind sort of way, losing men and 
horses in needless exposure, he turned back and succeeded 
in finding a Spanish trail, which he followed down into San 
Luis Valley, where, on the west side of the Arkansas, in 

de Mejico, ser. ii., torn i., pp. 375-558. Also see Appendix R, p. 489, J. H. 
Simpson's Report; English translation of Escalante 's diary from Santa F6 
to the Moki Towns, by Philip Harry. Also see H. H. Bancroft's History of the 
Pacific States, vol. xxv., p. 35. 




Wolpi, Arizona 

This is one of the Moki villages. It is on the end of a narrow mesa or promontory 

of cliff about seven hundred feet above the valley. Two other villages 

occupy the same mesa behind the point of view. 

Photograph by Ben Wittick, Albuquerque, N. M. 



The Fur Hunters 35 

whatwasindisputably Spanish territory, in January, 1807, he 
built a fort! He was soon captured by the Spanish troops, 
taken to Santa Fe and Chihuahua, and later released. 
What Pike was trying to do has remained a mystery ever 
since. It has been surmised that he was following out some 
fillibustering plan of the arch-traitor, General Wilkinson, 
whose son was with him and was sent back with messages 
before the entrance into the mountains. 

In Santa Fe Pike met the trapper Pursley, who told of 
the finding of gold on the head of the Platte. Copper and 
silver v/ere already being worked in New Mexico, harbingers 
of the enormous output of the future. But gold did not 
attract much so long as there were plenty of beaver. Large 
enterprises in the beaver pelt trade were being conducted 
at this time by Manuel Lisa, a Spaniard, and by some 
Frenchmen, Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, mainly along 
the upper Missouri, from which the trappers pushed out 
in every direction where beaver ground might be discovered. 
It was these men who first explored the wilderness, but, as 
they seldom put anything on record, their work in this 
direction counted for little, except when they met a Bonne- 
ville, a Fremont, or some other man of scientific training. 
Colter, one of the Lewis and Clark men, who remained in 
the mountains, described the geyser basin of the Yellow- 
stone, but not much was thought about it till many years 
after when a government expedition published an account. 
In 181 1 Henry, one of Lisa's company, went over to the 
head of the Snake and there built a trading-post. Larger 
operators now gradually stepped into the fur business. In 
1810, John Jacob Astor organised the Pacific Fur Company 
and the next year a party arrived by sea to erect a fort 
at the mouth of the Columbia. The British North-west 
Company did all they could to prevent the Pacific Fur 
Company from building or trading, but, notwithstanding 
this, the fort was completed, and was named Astoria, and 
the company began its operations. 



36 Fremont and '49 

Meanwhile Mr. Wilson Price Hunt, one of the partners, 
made an overland journey westward to reach Astoria, from 
St. Louis, following a new route from a little below the 
Mandan towns. Instead of continuing up the Missouri, as 
was usual, he bore to the left and struck across the country. 
The party traversed the Wind River range, went down 
Snake River, and finally, after many difficulties, arrived at 
Astoria, February 15, 18 12. From here young Robert 
Stuart, the end of the following July, was sent back east 
with advices for Mr. Astor. He kept a diary all the way, a 
typewritten copy of which is in the New York Public^ 
Library. With him were Ramsay Crooks and several 
others of the outward party. From the upper Snake River 
a more southerly course was picked out, and this led them 
through the afterwards noted South Pass, the first white 
men on record to go over it. 

In the War of 1812 Astoria was taken by the British^ but 
it was restored to the owners at the conclusion of peace, 
the British contending, however, in the subsequent contro- 
versy, that it was simply a restoration of private property 
that had encroached on British territory, and had no bear- 
ing on the ownership of Oregon. The treaty of Ghent 
called for a return of "all territory, places, and possessions 
whatsoever," except some specified on the Atlantic coast. 
No agreement on boundary could be reached, the United 
States adhering to its claim on the whole Oregon country 
on the basis of purchase, discovery, exploration, and settle- 
ment. A joint occupancy was the outcome, arranged for 
a term of ten years from October 20, 1818. During this 
time the North-west Company, and its successor the Hudson 
Bay Company, made it impossible for Americans to trade 
or trap in the country, and they opposed settlement. It 

^ The managers of the Pacific Fur Company, learning that the United States 
and Great Britain had gone to war, sold Astoria to the British North-west 
Company, so that when a British man-of-war came to capture the post it 
was already in British hands. It was renamed Fort George- 



Boundary Troubles zi 

was not until Dr. John McLoughlin ' was sent as chief 
factor in 1824 that these conditions began to change. 
While at first he refused to aid Americans, he at length 
more and more favoured them, and in the end he became a 
naturalised citizen. 

The British declared that the line of the 49th parallel, 
agreed on in 1818 as the boundary between Louisiana and 
the British possessions, and which the United States proposed 
as the Oregon boundary, halted at the watershed, or divide, 
of the Rocky Mountains, and that all beyond this to the 
west was British property down to the 42d parallel. They 
were finally willing to run the 49th parallel to the Columbia 
and then draw the line down that river to the ocean, but 
this was rejected by the Americans,^ who now contended 
for 54° 40', the southern limit agreed on with Russia for her 
territory. 

In 1 8 19 the boundary between Louisiana and Spain 
(later Mexico) had been definitely determined by treaty 
which was not ratified till 1821. The line was the 
west bank of the Sabine to the 32d parallel, thence north 
to Red River, thence on this river to the looth meridian 
and north to the Arkansas, thence on the south bank of the 
Arkansas to its source and from that point north to 42°, 
which was the line to the Pacific. Benton, who was one of 
the few men of that time with a clear appreciation of the 
future value to the United States of all these far western 
lands, was exasperated because the government in its eager- 
ness to settle the Florida matter relinquished the French 
Louisiana claim to as far as the Rio Grande.^ Mexico 
limited Texas to the Nueces, which had been the boundary 
of it as a Mexican state. On what ground Texas made the 
claim to the Rio Grande is impossible to discover. With 

' See Dr. John McLaughlin, The Father of Oregon, by Frederick V. Holman. 
' See Greenhow's History of California for data on these points. 
•» In 1835 Jackson offered to buy northern California, including the Bay 
of San Francisco. 



38 Fremont and '49 

apparently as much justice, Texas might have claimed the 
Colorado as its western limit, or the Pacific. In the case of 
the Oregon dispute, Benton maintained that the treaty 
of Utrecht between France (and hence the United States 
as the successor) and Great Britain having established the 
parallel of 49° as the line between Louisiana and British 
territory westward indefinitely, the same 49th parallel must 
be the northern boundary of Oregon indefinitely to the 
Pacific. If this were true, we never had any claim what- 
ever to "54° 40' or fight." 

After the 18 19 understanding with Spain on the southern 
boundary of Louisiana, Calhoun brought about an expedi- 
tion, under Major Long, to reconnoitre the Great Plains. 
This party wintered 1819-20 near Council Bluffs after 
having ascended the Missouri in the Western Engineer, a 

small stern-wheeler seventy-five feet long, thirteen feet beam, 
and drew nineteen inches light. She was intended to impress 
the Indians with awe, and there is no doubt she did so. On her 
bow, running from her keelson forward, was the escape pipe, 
made in imitation of a huge serpent, painted black, and its mouth 
and tongue painted a fiery red. The steam escaped from the 
mouth of the serpent. 

This remarkable craft was one of four designed for this 
expedition. One sank early in the ascent, two were sent 
back from near Atchison, and the Western Engineer alone 
was able to proceed, though her highest speed up stream 
was three miles an hour, and she reached Fort Lisa, about 
five miles below Council Bluffs, the first steamboat to get 
so far. Here the river was abandoned and Long conducted 
his small party across the Plains on horseback, along the 
Platte, to the mountains. One striking peak they concluded 
was "Pike's highest peak"; that is, the peak which Pike 
specially described but did not succeed in reaching. Long 
named it James's Peak, after his botanist, who was the first 
white man on record to reach its summit, but it received 



Long's Expedition 39 

the name of Pike nevertheless. Long's party was divided 
and part returned down the Arkansas, while the other went 
in search of Red River, found the Canadian, and after much 
wandering got back on the Arkansas. The story of this 
expedition was told by James and is very readable. ' Neither 
Pike nor Long had secured any data beyond the Rocky 
Mountain barrier, nor were their results on the Plains very 
scientific. But at any rate something more was known of 
the Plains ; and of the rivers which were to form the southern 
boundary of Louisiana. 

As to boundaries in general, the situation by 1841 was 
that the United States had undisputed claim to less than one 
half the territory west of the Mississippi, while Great 
Britain held a shaky grip on Oregon ; Mexico saw California 
Alta tugging at its moorings, with New Mexico in much the 
same condition; and Texas already was steering with her 
own crew by 1837. Russia had an uncertain foot on Cali- 
fornia at Ross and Bodega Bay; France was standing by 
at "attention," ready to take advantage of any opportunity, 
but as ever considerate of the interests of the United States. 
Great Britain was quietly inaugiu-ating a series of steady 
movements designed to land San Francisco Bay and north- 
ward, if not the whole of California Alta,^ in her net; yet, so 
far as California was concerned, the British evidently had no 
plan of directly opposing the United States in the game; she 
intended to grasp it if the chance offered, hence it was impera- 
tive that the United States should be on the qui vive and 

' Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, per- 
formed in the years 1819-1820 . . . under command of Major S. H. Long of 
the U. S. Topographical Engineers, compiled from the notes of Major Long, 
Mr. T. Say, and other gentlemen of the party, by Edwin James, botanist and 
geologist to the expedition. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & 
Brown, 1823, 3 vols. 

" The designation California Alta is continually used instead of Upper Cali- 
fornia because the latter term has frequently been employed to designate the 
part of California north of San Francisco Bay, whereas California Alta means 
all north of San Diego, as distinguished from California Baja, or Peninsular 
California. 



40 Fremont and '49 

secure the first foothold. If Great Britain, by purchase, by 
negotiation, or by Hudson Bay Company occupation, ever 
got a hold on part of California, the other nations could 
immediately be counted out. So, too, if the United States 
could get a grip, nothing but war could oust her; the situa- 
tion was, in fact, simmering down to a question of tactics, 
and the several interested nations seem to have been fully 
aware of it. This explains why our flag was so speedily run 
up at Monterey at the merest rumour of war between Mexico 
and the United States, and then taken down again when 
the rumour was not verified. 

With the exception of Senators Linn and Benton and one 
or two other men from the West, and Fremont, through his 
intercourse with them and the ideas he had gained while 
out with Nicollet, there were few who understood the con- 
ditions or who cared much about the far-off "useless" lands 
of the Pacific Coast. The Oregon question for years aroused 
little real interest. In 1828 our hold on it seemed to be 
growing weaker through the apathy of the government and 
the people, and the hostility of the Hudson Bay Company. 
The only part of Oregon fit to occupy, declared Mr. Mc- 
Duffie in Congress, was a little strip along the coast less than 
one hundred miles wide ; for agricultural purposes all the rest 
was not worth a pinch of snuff. Many people, too, were op- 
posed to any further extension of territory, believing it to be 
"dangerous to the integrity of the Union." Some members 
of Congress asserted that no one could ever represent that far- 
off region in Washington for the reason that too long a time 
would be required to make the dangerous journey. As 
to the western bounds of Louisiana, France seems never to 
have admitted any limit at the Rocky Mountains. ^ 

I On this subject consult: The Boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase, by 
Louis Houck, St. Louis, 1901; The Louisiana Purchase, etc., by Binger Her- 
mann, Washington, 1898; Documetits relating to the Purchase and Explora- 
tion of Louisiana, by William Dunbar, Boston, 1904; History of the Louisiana 
Purchase, by James K. Hosmer, N. Y., 1902; " Les Limites au Nord-Ouest 
de la Louisiana c^d^e par la France aux Etats Unis en 1803," F. Romanet 



Famous Trappers 41 

The Santa Fe trade rapidly developed. In 1824 Augustus 
Storrs was sent to investigate. He made his report to 
Senator Benton and that indefatigable legislator introduced 
a bill for the survey of the route, which was accordingly 
accomplished in 1825-26 by J. C. Brown, the work being 
done by chain and compass, corrected by latitude and longi- 
tude observations. In 1824 waggons, to some extent, took 
the place of pack-trains, and after that the waggons predomi- 
nated. Thousands of tons of merchandise were transported 
over the 775 miles of this dangerous road, the eastern termi- 
nus of which was at three points, Westport, the present 
Kansas City, Independence, and Franklin. These were 
the starting-places, also, for many of the trappers and 
fur-traders, who were numerous and who were exceedingly 
skilful and capable. Some became famous, like Jim Bridger, 
Maxwell, Fitzpatrick, and Kit Carson, while others of as 
great or greater accomplishments, like Jedediah Smith, 
Ashley, Sublette, and the Patties, were less well known. 
Thomas L. Smith, better known as "Peg-leg" Smith because 
of a wooden leg he wore, due to the loss of the original 
member through an arrow-shot, was occupied largely in 
stealing horses. He operated between the various Indian 
tribes commonly, joining the raid of one tribe or another 
as might suit his plans, but his greatest hauls were made in 
California. He would send spies ahead, and then at the 
given hour would sweep through the country driving the 
horses before him. General William H. Ashley was one of 
the most distinguished of all the traders and was a man of 
wealth and culture. He came to the mountains in 1824 and 
took a wheeled cannon through South Pass in 1827. Wag- 
gons were first pulled through this pass, which is low and 
easy — low with relation to the surroundings though 8000 
feet above sea — by Captain Bonneville in 1832. Bonne- 

de Caillaud in Eighth Report International Congress of Geographers, 1904. 
Hermann was mainly responsible for placing the limit in recent times, on 
maps, at the Rocky Mountains. 



42 Fremont and '49 

ville, on leave of absence from the army, lived the life of a 
fur-trader and enjoyed it so much that he neglected to return 
when his leave was up, or to send any word of his intentions. 
He visited Salt Lake and planned for its exploration but 
Walker, who was to do the work, went instead on across, 
by way of the Humboldt, to California.^ The discovery 
of the lake is awarded to Jim Bridger, though it has been 
said that Etienne Provost was there in 1820, four years 
earlier. Several trappers circumnavigated it in search of 
beaver streams in 1826. Bonneville attempted to carry his 
operations into the Oregon region, but the hostility of the 
Hudson Bay Company compelled him to desist, as it had 
every other American. The Californians were also opposed 
to American trappers, and they instigated attacks by In- 
dians against them. The officials of New Mexico imposed 
on American trappers and traders, and, as in California, 
they were frequently thrown into prison, where they were 
badly treated. The elder Pattie died in a California prison 
in 1828, while his son was confined near by and not per- 
mitted to go to him. 

The same year that Bonneville went out, 1832, the noted 
American author, Washington Irving, started on a trip across 
the plains from Fort Gibson as far as the Cross Timbers and 
proceeded to within a day's march of the Texas boundary. ^ 
Another traveller on the plains this year was Nathaniel 
Wyeth, who passed Bonneville en route, and continued on 
to Fort Vancouver, where he turned round and went back 
to Boston to complete the organisation of his fishing and 
trading company. The Oregon Trail now began to rival 
the Santa Fe Trail. In spite of the fact that there were 
excellent farming lands to be had in the Dakota region 
where Nicollet and Fremont had explored, the Pacific 
Coast seemed to be a greater attraction. Wyeth, notwith- 
standing admirable skill and organisation, was imdermined 

>. * Irving's Bonneville. 

» " A Tour of the Prairies," Irving in Crayon Miscellany. Putnams. 



Armijo the Cruel 43 

by the Hudson Bay Company and was obliged to give up 
and return. In 1833, Maximilian of Wied, Catlin, the after- 
wards famous artist, and various American and English 
sportsmen travelled the plains and the mountains. Dr. 
Parker and Marcus Whitman went to Oregon in 1836 and 
they succeeded in establishing a mission there. It was the 
first real foothold of the Americans in that region. 

The Texans, the next year, achieved their independence. 
The matter of placing their boundary at the Rio Grande 
had not been settled, but they heard that the New Mexicans 
were dissatisfied with conditions and would be glad to join 
the Texans against the New Mexican government, which 
was simply the governor, Armijo, a man of incredible bar- 
barity. Accordingly, the Texan Santa Fe expedition was 
organised in 1841, largely a mercantile venture, with a 
powerful guard. 

The conquest was expected to be accomplished pleas- 
antly and briefly; and then for trade! But the expedition, 
not knowing the way, arrived in the Rio Grande valley in a 
separated and demoralised condition. Deception then gave 
Armijo the upper hand, whereupon some of the Texans w^ere 
slaughtered like dogs, and the rest marched in the hardest 
manner to El Paso, where better treatment was met with, 
and the rest of the journey to the City of Mexico w^as 
humane. ^ 

California Alta, during this time, was receiving settlers 
from the United States, and a trade similar to the Santa Fe 
had grown to considerable proportions, but it w^as con- 
ducted by sea. The Mexican government was disturbed; 
the Californians themselves affiliated with the foreigners 
and all w'ere highly independent ; the country began steadily 
to drift from its slender moorings. In 1836, the following 
resolution was passed by a newly formed state, of which 
J. B. Alvarado was made civil governor: "The said Cali- 

' Narrative of the Texan Santa Fc Expedition, by George Wilkins Kendall. 
Two vols. N.Y., 1844. Harpers. 



44 Fremont and '49 

fornia shall be erected into a free and governing state, 
establishing a congress which shall dictate all the particu- 
lars of the country and elect the other supreme powers 
necessary." 

Captain Wilkes of the United States Navy, who conducted 
some explorations in California Alta in 1841 , says : "Ameri- 
cans from the United States are beginning to settle in this part 
of the country (Sacramento Valley) and it will not be long 
before it becomes in some respects an American colony."^ 
Sir George Simpson said: "The only doubt is whether Cali- 
fornia is to fall to the British or Americans." William Glen 
Rae, in California for the Hudson Bay Company, declared, 
when intoxicated, that it had "cost 75,000 pounds to drive 
certain American traders out of Oregon, and that they meant 
to drive the Yankees from California if it took a million 
pounds to do it." 

About this time a French traveller in that region, 
Eugene Dufiot de Mofras, says: "England and the United 
States flatter themselves alike with the idea of taking 
California from Mexico. It is, moreover, evident to us 
that California will belong to whatever nation chooses to 
send there a man-of-war and 200 men,"^ That is to say, 
the nation that should make the first aggressive move would 
be the one which would gain the prize of California; but 
which could make such a move, hostile to Mexico? which 
would dare to make fast the hawser of the drifting State? 
The difficulty was to find a proper excuse, not only with 
regard to Mexico, the nominal owner, but Great Britain 
and the United States with regard to each other. They 
had no intention of becoming involved in a war over 
this question; in fact the British people, as a whole, seem 
never on any occasion to have desired a rupture with the 
American contingent. 

The Oregon question was not yet settled; the British 
and Americans were coming almost to the firing-line on that. 

' Wilkes, vol. v., p. 191. * Explorations, ii., pp. 61-71. 




Jedediah Smith': 



1 of the main Like; the Virgil 



California Alta in 1841 

^ ^ From the Report of Captain Wilkes, vol. v 

,11 bmith s return trail of 1S27 is given, and the Great Basin area is • resented without imaginary rivers, though a note suggests a possible unknown stream. Salt Lake is called " Youta," and the Utah Lake of to-day is included a 
K.ver IS .ipparently " Pyramid or Adams " River. Ad.ims was the name given by Smith on his outward march in honour of the President. Inconstant River is probably intended for the Mohave. Rio S. Maria is Bill Williams Fork. R. Yaquesila is the Little 
Colorado, and Rio N.abaioa, the San Juan. " Pto Bucarelli " {Puerto de Bucareli) on the Colorado was the name given by Padre Garces to the Grand Canyon where he saw it on his way to the Moki To>vns in 1776. Albert Gallatin, in 1836, published 
a map giving the topography of the " Great Siandy Desert " very much as it is given here, and it is apparent that Wilkes consulted the Gallatin map as well as the Bonneville maps: for the latter see pajjes 24 and 8q 



A Tense Situation 45 

Naturally if war came over the Oregon boundary, Great 
Britain would immediately take steps to oust the Americans 
from California. Diplomatically, the whole situation was 
tense. Senator Benton was in close touch with the Washing- 
ton authorities; he was one of them, and no man, probably, 
knew all the diplomatic intricacies of the time better than 
he. He knew also that it was important to acquire as 
speedily as possible an understanding of the western region 
and everything connected with it. He was, therefore, pro- 
foundly interested in the several Fremont expeditions; he 
was, in fact, the prime instigator of them; expeditions al- 
most entirely through territory which was either absolutely 
foreign, where no American expedition had a right to go, 
where in fact they had been expressly forbidden to go, or 
in territory that was disputed. The expeditions were, 
evidently, a part of a great game — the game of California. 
The question was, "Who wins California?" War with 
Mexico was expected. Texas and Mexico were nominally 
at war; it required only the annexation of Texas to the 
United States, already urged, to bring about war against 
that country ; indeed Mexico intimated that annexation of 
Texas to the United States wotild be considered a declara- 
tion of war. With this review of conditions and prospects, 
we will follow the fortunes of the young explorer, so ad- 
mirably equipped for the work before him. 



CHAPTER III 

TO ST. VRAIN's and FORT LARAMIE 

The Lure of Free Land — Fremont's First Expedition — Kit Carson, Paragon 
of Mountaineers — Outfitting at Chouteau's — On the Oregon Trail — ■ 
Numberless Buffalo — Dividing the Party at the Forks of the Platte — The 
Mountains Sighted — Wild Horses and Wild Arapaho Warriors — At 
Chabonard's Camp — Jim Beckwourth, the Mulatto Scout — Fort Platte 
— Arrival at Fort Laramie. 

THE productiveness of land is the basis of all prosperity 
and all valuation. People having no ownership in 
land in one locality will always gravitate towards the 
region where there is opportunity to secure it. Dangers 
and hardships will be cheerfully discounted for the possible 
prize of owning a home. Exactly as in the earlier days the 
barrier of the Alleghanies was overcome for the free lands 
of the Mississippi Valley, now the several barriers of the 
Western Wilderness were to be vanquished, beginning with 
those on the Oregon Trail. "Nobody," declared Benton, 
"will go three thousand miles to settle a new country unless 
he gets land by it." Therefore he favoured a liberal home- 
stead law for the Oregon country, and finally, in conjunction 
with Senator Linn, another enthusiast on the Far West, he 
succeeded in getting through Congress a land bill which gave 
every actual settler one mile square (640 acres), with other 
benefits. This was a chance for fortune that people were 
eager to take advantage of. 

The Spaniards and Mexicans made grants of land too, 
for various reasons. Texas was settled by Americans 
because of one of these made to Austin; and the Mexican 

46 




3 2 = 

So -c 

in y '" 

c<s - Ji 

• 5. o 



Savincf the Columbia 47 



't) 



possessions were plastered with them, all vague and uncer- 
tain as to boundaries, and often as to legality. When 
exact methods came in and attempts were made to locate 
the lines, they were found to wobble widely over miles of 
valley, stream, and mountain, and consequently they de- 
veloped into sources of enmity, litigation, and even armed 
resistance. Through this very cause Fremont in later years 
was doomed to serious disappointment and harsh criticism. 
The results of the American system were very different; 
valuable homes were supplied to millions. Societies were 
formed for systematic emigration to Oregon; everything 
indicated by the word "Oregon" was as seductive as the 
warm sunsets which spread beyond it. The annual caravan 
to Santa Fe was merely a trading venture, but the annual 
caravan which by 1841 was established over the Oregon 
Trail meant settlement of the Pacific Coast by Americans, 
and permanent prosperity to an enormous number. In 
this year of 1842, at least one thousand emigrants from the 
Eastern States went overland to Oregon by way of Missouri, 
with their wives, their children, and their flocks. "To 
check these bold adventurers was the object of the govern- 
ment," says Benton, "to encourage them the object of some 
western members of Congress on whom (in conjunction with 
the people) the task of saving the Columbia evidently 
devolved."^ 

The reason the government desired to check this tide 
was that, as the boundary question was still absolutely 
unsettled, it was not deemed wise to encourage emigration 
in that direction, especially as there was an abundance of 
free land of good quality much nearer home, in the region 
surveyed by Nicollet, to say nothing of the district south 
and south-east; but Benton and his colleagues, in which of 
course Fremont coincided, believed the surest way to secure 
Oregon and bring the dispute to an end was to rush in as 
large a representation of Americans as possible, and accord- 

" Thirty Years, vol. ii., p. 70. 



48 Fremont and '49 

ingly this method prevailed, with a resiilt that appears fully 
to justify it. 

Between the Missouri at about Kansas City, then West- 
port Landing, where at this time the emigrants started on the 
long overland journey, and the lower valley of the Columbia, 
there were absolutely no settlements or settlers. The only 
establishments in that line were the scattered forts of the 
fur companies, and an occasional trapper's cabin and 
"rendezvous" some of which will be met with in the course 
of this narrative. These places were occupied in trading 
with the Indians, one of the chief articles of barter being 
alcohol many times diluted. When the natives became 
tipsy from this beverage it was easy to secure their furs for 
very small sums, or for a few extra drinks. This practice 
on the part of the traders often produced trouble for the 
emigrant or explorer, and was one cause of the Indians' 
distrust of whites. Another was the opposition of the 
Mexicans and of the British which, at least indirectly, 
instilled a spirit of enmity in the Indians of their respective 
localities, against Americans. 

His first expedition, Fremont states, was intended to be 

auxiliary and in aid to the emigration to the lower Columbia ; 
it was to indicate and describe the line of travel, and the best 
positions for military posts, and to describe and fix in position 
the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains at which this initial 
expedition was to terminate. At this time the South Pass, at 
the head of the Platte River, was the one most available for 
our emigration and already used.^ 

This was written years afterward ; there is no suggestion in 
Fremont'sreportthat it was considered an "initial " expedition 

' "The winter of 1842-43 had been used to make out the maps and write the 
report. In this I was secretary and amanuensis, and had full knowledge of 
the large scope and national importance of these journeys — a knowledge as 
yet strictly confined to the few carrying out their aim. Even to the Secretary 
of War, and to Mr. Fremont's immediate commander, the Colonel of the 
Topographical Engineers, they were only geographical surveys to determine 
lines of travel." — Mrs. Fremont, Century Magazine, p. 768, vol. xix., N.S. 



Deep Designs 49 

it the time, but it undoubtedly was so considered by Ben- 
ton and Fremont themselves; and Fremont states that the 
real object of the expedition was avowed at a later period. 

It would not have been proper to mention such in- 
tentions in a government report, especially as the future 
expeditions must first be authorised before they could be 
undertaken, and, even with so powerful an influence in their 
favour as that of Senator Benton, they were uncertain. 
P'or, among other difficulties, it was a question just how far 
Mexico, already greatly irritated, would tolerate trespassing 
-;n her soil; and whether the Oregon country might not soon 
be exclusively British. Fremont remarks, "I felt I was 
being drawn into the current of important political events; 
the object of this expedition was not merely a survey; be- 
yond that was its bearing on the holding of our territory 
on the Pacific; and the contingencies it involved were large." 
The object, as set forth in the orders, however, was simply 
to explore the country between the Missouri River and the 
Rocky Mountains, "but its real purpose" and objects were 
known only to the "circle of its friends," indicating that 
B ^"-tton, Linn, Fremont, and the others of that select circle 

heir consultations on the subject of territorial acquisi- 
.'ji s in the Far West, w^hich included California, had worked 
K'lU a more or less definite plan, later carried out as occasion 
permitted. It will be well for the reader to bear in mind 
th -..e points for future consideration as the story unfolds, 
particularly when Gillespie so romantically overtakes 
Fremont, on his third expedition, in the California mount- 
anis, direct from the admonitions of the chief personage 
of this close circle, Senator Benton, one of the wisest, most 
far-sighted and patriotic men in Washington. 

Probably the first object was, as stated, Oregon settle- 
ment, in the endeavour to decide, by occupation of actual 
residents, the dispute in favour of the United States. Tyler, 
who was then President, was opposed to any encourage- 
ment of emigration to the Columbia Valley, while the "circle 
4 



50 Fremont and '49 

of friends" saw in it the only successful issue of our 
claims. 

At length the first Fremont expedition was authorised ; but 
it was ofHcially so limited in distance that Fremont quickly 
applied for an extension to South Pass, which was granted, 
and the orders accordingly changed to read to that effect. 
Although, as we have seen, several expeditions had crossed 
and recrossed the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains, 
besides numberless wandering trappers and traders; emi- 
grants were annually striking out for Oregon; the Santa Fe 
trail was heavily travelled; yet the wilderness was largely 
a wilderness still, and it was an extensive wilderness. The 
way was wild, rough, and unmarked; not a bridge existed. 
To mention the non-existence of bridges may seem trivial 
to the average reader, but I know from my own experience 
that this lack was often a serious drawback. 

May 2, 1842, Lieutenant Fremont, now twenty-nine 
years of age, said good-bye to his bride of six months in 
Washington, and set out for St. Louis, where he arrived in 
twenty days and remained several weeks outfitting. 

The city of St. Louis then, and for many years after- 
ward, was the metropolis of the West, the chief place for 
preparing for western travel. Chicago was little more 
than a large village, Kansas City and Omaha did not 
exist, while New Orleans, the other established city, was 
too far out of the line of travel. From St. Louis, Fremont 
went up the Missouri, on one of the steamboats described 
in an earlier chapter, and on this boat he was fortunate in 
meeting Kit Carson, the "paragon of mountaineers," ac- 
cording to Ruxton. ^ Carson, whose home was in Taos, New 
Mexico, was then thirty-three years of age. 

Small in stature and slenderly limbed, but with muscles 
of wire [to quote Ruxton again] with a fair complexion and 
quiet, intelligent features, to look at Kit none would suppose that 

' Life in the Far West, by George Frederick Ruxton. 1849. 



Outfitting 51 

the mild-looking being before him was an incarnate devil in 
Indian fighting and had raised more hair from the head of Red- 
skins than any other two men in the western country, and yet 
thirty winters had scarcely planted a line or furrow on his clean- 
shaven face. He was first in every quality which constitutes 
excellence in a mountaineer, whether of indomitable courage or 
perfect indifference to death or danger, with an iron frame 
capable of withstanding hunger, thirst, heat, cold, fatigue, and 
hardships of every kind; of wonderful presence of mind and 
endless resources in time of peril ; with the instinct of an animal 
and the moral courage of a man who was "taller" for his inches 
than Kit Carson. 

Carson suggested going with Fremont, and the Lieutenant 
engaged him in place of another mountaineer previously 
considered, named Drips. This was the beginning of the 
lifelong warm friendship between Fremont and Carson. 
The destination was the trading-post of Cyprian Chouteau, 
seven miles back from the river, at " Chouteau's Landing " 
(Westport Landing, Kansas City now), where they dis- 
embarked. Cyprian Chouteau was one of the famous 
family of that name, so long identified with early fur-trading, 
Pierre and Auguste having been among the first in the 
country, and also among the first to befriend the lonely 
Nicollet on his arrival. It will be remembered that, through 
NicoUet, Fremont became well acquainted with many of 
the people of St. Louis, including the Chouteaus, and now, 
above all, he had the added prestige of being son-in-law 
to the great Senator from the growing State of Missouri, 
whose home was here. 

For twenty days they remained finishing their prepara- 
tions for the trip, and Fremont began immediately those 
conscientious observations which so markedly distinguish 
his expeditions from preceding ones. He made, always, 
frequent observations for latitude and longitude, and he 
gives the figures and the m.cthod in his report. . He states 
that those for longitude on the first expedition were thrown 



52 Fremont and '49 

too far west by an occultation which he later found to be 
unrehable, and he refers all, therefore, to the series taken on 
the next expedition.^ The latitudes are generally near the 
mark, but the longitudes, not only of the first but also of 
the second expedition, are faulty. Nor do the recorded 
longitudes of the first expedition agree with those marked 
on his map, a photographic copy of which I have before 
me. On this, for example, the meridian of 105° runs east 
of Fort Laramie by about twenty minutes (evidently a 
draughtsman's error), whereas the record in the itinerary 
gives the position of Laramie as 104° 47' 43'', while the 
correct longitude is around 104° 33'. In following the track 
of the expeditions, therefore, I shall, frequently, omit his 
figures and, as far as possible, identify the trails by places 
marked on ordinary maps of to-day. His barometrical 
observations were compared with observations by Dr. 
Engleman in St. Louis, as a base station, and generally they 
are not far out of the way. In order to get the most nearly 
acciirate results with any form of barometer, its readings 
must be synchronous with those of two or more "base" 
barometers; that is, barometers situated at some point not 
far off where the height above the level of the sea is abso- 
lutely known — a railway track, for example. Of coiu-se, at 
the time of these expeditions of Fremont a satisfactory 
barometer base was an impossible thing to secure anywhere 
west of St. Louis; there were no railways; no place had been 
established exactly as to altitude. St. Louis was a long way 
off, too long to give the best resiilts. Notwithstanding the 
difficulties and the often disadvantageous conditions, Fre- 

' " In the course of the last exploration it became evident that the longitudes 
established during the campaign of 1842 were collectively thrown too far to 
westward by the occultation of a= Arietis, to which they had been referred 
by the chronometer. This occultation took place at the bright limb of the 
moon, which experience has recently shown to be deserving of little compara- 
tive confidence." — Report, p. 321. St. Vrain's fort on the first expedition is 
made 105° 12' 12", on the second 105° 12' 23". The actual longitude is about 
104° 51'- 




From an old print. 



John Charles Fremont 
1813-1890 

Probably about as he looked at the time of his first 
expeditions to the Far West 



Charles Preuss 53 

mont's observations were admirable in their conscientiousness 
and they were sufficient to form the basis of some (for the 
circumstances) very good maps. His astronomical errors 
seem to have been constant, and, when this is the case, reduc- 
tion to correctness, when the error is once calculated, is a 
simple matter. 

On this 1842, or "First," expedition, he had twenty-one 
men, chiefly Creoles and Canadian voyageurs who had been 
in the employ of the fur companies and were consequently 
familiar with the life. Lucien Maxwell was hunter; Carson, 
as noted, was guide, and a German of most admirable 
qualities, Charles Preuss, afterwards very well known in 
the geographical field, was topographer. Fremont had first 
met Preuss when the latter was in financial distress, and had 
befriended him, which brought about a "long friendly com- 
radeship." "The little service which I was able to render 
him," says Fremont, "he amply repaid by years of faithful 
and valuable service as topographer on my journeys, during 
which his even temper and patient endurance of hardship 
earned my warm regard." There were also in the company 
two boys, one a son of Colonel Brant of St. Louis, nineteen 
years of age, and Fremont's brother-in-law, Randolph Ben- 
ton, twelve years old. These youngsters furnished much 
life and amusement to the daily routine, as youngsters are 
apt to do. 

The baggage was transported in carts, as in the Nicollet 
surveys, each being drawn by two mules, in charge of one 
of the Frenchmen. All the other men were mounted. Some 
loose horses and four oxen completed the outfit that began 
its march across the Plains on the loth of June, 1842, which 
was Friday, "a circumstance," remarks the Lieutenant, 
"which our men did not fail to remember and recall during 
the hardships and vexations of the ensuing journey." They 
were soon out on the open prairie, where they saw Indians 
riding by, and, in the distance, that characteristic element 
of the early days, a column of smoke sweeping away on the 



54 Fremont and '49 

wind before a prairie fire. Even down to the latter "70*5," 
when I Hved in Kansas for a time, the prairie fire was a 
common feature, and I returned home one evening to find 
that a fire had swept across my ranch, happily, thanks to 
the efforts of my man and neighbours, without doing any 
great amount of damage. The Fremont party in about 
ten miles struck the Santa Fe Trail, and followed it a short 
distance before turning northward. We shall find the noted 
explorer on this famous road again, another year, when he is 
returning from the Rocky Mountains. It did not then mat- 
ter much which direction one travelled, for, except that there 
were deeply worn waggon-ruts to follow in some places as 
guides, the region might be graphically described in the 
language of a gentleman whom I met who wished to give 
a pictiu-e of the way to the Black Hills, as being "all road!" 
Having myself once navigated a ''prairie schooner, " without 
any companion but my horses, for a couple of hundred miles 
over this expansive highway, I can appreciate the exactness 
of this description. 

On a small stream they made an early camp, in the man- 
ner they adopted for safety. They usually stopped an hour 
or two before sunset in order that the proper arrangements 
might be made, which were, to form a corral or yard of the 
carts, to pitch the tents, hopple the horses to feed, and start 
the supper going. At dusk the animals had their hopples 
removed and were driven in to be picketed near by, ready to 
be placed inside the waggon-corral if necessary. Hoppling, 
or "hobbling" as it is usually pronounced in the West, 
consists in putting a sort of leather bracelet on the animal's 
forelegs just below the fetlock, which prevents walking, 
except with very small steps, and if the beast tries to run 
he must gallop in a three-legged way that is not easy ; though 
I have seen fractious horses make astonishingly good time 
in spite of this handicap. The hopple, of course, is not 
necessarily of leather all nicely prepared with uniting ring 
and buckles for convenience; it may be anything that will 



A Rubber Boat 55 

hold. Rope hopples are common, and I have used my 
bridle-reins when nothing else was available. The "picket- 
ing" consisted in tying the horse, by a rope or lasso twenty 
or thirty feet long, to a stake or "picket" driven firmly 
into the ground. This enables the animal to nibble at the 
grass, if there is any, and yet holds him at hand for protection. 
A horse that is merely hoppled may travel two or three miles 
in a night; some of them will do it apparently out of pure 
revenge; mules certainly will. Fremont established a guard 
going on duty every night at eight o'clock, consisting of 
three men, relieved every two hours. In travelling through 
a far, new country, especially when infested with a popu- 
lation that declines to admit the God-given rights of invaders 
to paramount authority, and is likely to appropriate all 
one's live stock at a single swoop, the danger of dangers is 
being left without a mount. Walking and carrying baggage 
many long miles is not to be anticipated with pleasure. 
The western mountaineers, therefore, made sure of their 
hold on their stock, and caravans that were cautious and 
ready were not often attacked. 

At dawn Fremont's rising call was sounded, and by seven 
o'clock the company was under way. The march was 
broken at noon by a halt of an hour or two for dinner and 
rest, and then continued till the usual time fixed for making 
night camp. This is practically the routine followed by 
every party in the field, at all periods of western exploration. 
A little west of the present city of Topeka they forded the 
Kansas River at a regular crossing, June 14, 1842. The 
river was "up," as they say, and when this condition pre- 
vails the passage from one side to the other is usually attended 
with difficulty and some danger. The adjoining bottom 
lands are frequently under water at the same time, and one 
approaches the main channel with no certain idea of just 
where the deep water commences. Fremont had provided 
an india-rubber boat, the first ever used in such work he 
thought, with air-tight compartments. It was built in 



56 Fremont and '49 

New York and was twenty feet long and five feet wide. 
Much of the outfit was successfully transported on this 
craft when it was capsized through the timidity of the steers- 
man. And here it may be stated that timidity is one of the 
most objectional qualities in an explorer ; in this case it proved 
to have brought no very serious disaster, as almost all the 
goods were recovered, except some sugar and a bag of coffee. 
The coffee was the only thing they specially mourned, and 
most of those who have "roughed it" and enjoyed the 
bracing effects of a cup of hot coffee in camp on a 
frosty morning or after a wet and wearisome day, will 
sympathise with them. Coffee gives the tired strong man 
a new grip on vigour, and is consequently useful and com- 
forting, but by no means essential. Some very rugged 
Mormons I have known would never touch coffee, tea, 
tobacco, or alcohol of any kind, because it was against their 
creed, and they seemed to fare quite as well in camp, and 
on the march, as other men who believed these things, except 
the alcohol , necessary . Few experienced men have any faith in 
whiskey as an aid to withstanding fatigue or exposure, or in 
any way beneficial for daily use, and beer, even if it could be 
had, is even more objectionable, especially in a hot country. ^ 

The party proceeded on its way north-westerly across 
what are now Jackson, Pottawatomie, Marshall, and the 
north-eastern corner of Washington counties, Kansas, into 
Nebraska. Fremont paid close attention to the nature of the 
soil, the quantity of timber (here existing only in the river 
bottoms), the grasses, plants, flowers, geology, altitude, 
temperature, etc., and he recorded his observations in his 
note-books. 

Some Indians visited the camp at the ford, one of whom 
spoke French with "as much facility and as little embarrass- 
ment" as any of Fremont's own men, French as all of them 
were. In these days French and Spanish were common in 

^ As good a stimulant probably as any to be found is hot pea soup, made 
from the German " erbsenwurst'' preparation. 



Farmer Indians 57 

the Far West. These Indians were farmers too. They 
brought butter, vegetables, pumpkins, onions, beans, and 
lettuce to trade. From a half-breed twenty or thirty pounds 
of coffee were obtained, and from others a cow and calf in 
exchange for a yoke of oxen. It may be wondered why a 
cow and calf were better than a yoke of oxen, but it seems 
that cream was desired for the coffee! This was a luxury 
that did not last a great while. The best campaigners never 
scorn a luxury that comes their way, and when they are 
"down to bedrock," or worse, in the matter of provisions, 
they take it with equal nonchalance. The most difficult 
man to please in camp is the man who has had little at home. 
On the 20th of June they crossed the Big Vermilion and 
after a day's march arrived at the Big Blue, "a clear hand- 
some stream running with a rapid ciurent," A party of 
emigrants for Oregon were a few weeks ahead of them on 
this road; their camps and other traces served somewhat to 
break the monotony of the way, for it is a fact that in a 
lonely, unfrequented region even the discarded tin cans of 
another party acqmre an interest. At night they often 
had hosts of mosquitoes, the worst pest of outdoor life, for 
it is impossible to cope with them. Besides the discomfort of 
their attacks, we now know that they are responsible for the 
dissemination of malaria. It was reported that there was 
much sickness in the party ahead, which was a large one, 
sixty-four men and many women and children, with all their 
household goods, and numbers of fine cattle. Besides specu- 
lating on the fortunes of the pioneers, there was occasionally 
other excitement, as, for example, when one of the men 
rushed in to proclaim a war party of twenty-seven Indians 
near at hand. Carson swiftly investigated. "Mounted on 
a fine horse," says Fremont, "without a saddle, and scour- 
ing bareheaded over the prairies. Kit was one of the finest 
pictures of a horseman I have ever seen." The twenty-seven 
Indians proved to be six elk which ran away as fast as they 
could! 



58 Fremont and '49 

Crossing on June 26th from the Blue to the Nebraska or 
Platte River, they camped on the bank about twenty miles 
below the head of Grand Island, the next day proceeding 
to near the head of the island, about where the 99th meri- 
dian cuts the river, approximately opposite, and a trifle 
south-east of, the present city of Kearney. Fremont made 
the longitude 99° 05' 2^" and latitude 40° 39' 32", which 
seem to be about correct. On the 28th there was another 
alarm. Someone was discovered approaching. All was 
made ready, while the men galloped boldly to the attack. 
It was only a party of trappers who, sixty days before, had 
started from Fort Laramie to navigate the Platte with 
barges laden with furs destined for St. Louis. They hoped 
to come down on the annual "rise." It was not so well 
understood then that while the Platte is magnificent as to 
length, and ranks high in width, it is absolutely lacking 
in the third dimension, without which navigation, even 
for the craft of these trappers, drawing only nine inches of 
water, is impossible. ^ They had cached their furs and come 
on afoot. That evening three real Indians came, two men 
and a small boy, Cheyennes from the far land in the West 
at the head of the South Platte. Their excursion into this 
region had been for the bold purpose of appropriating some 
of the surplus horses of the Pawnees, though they were 
armed only with bows and long spears. They were return- 
ing disappointed; they had no horses except the poor beasts 
they rode; but they still had their scalps. Fremont kindly 
fed them, and without an invitation they attached them- 
selves to his party, as it was going their way. 

The trappers had reported large herds of buffalo a short 
distance in advance, which was joyful news, and on the 
last day of June Fremont came to them. The arrival in 
the midst of buffalo was always an important event on the 
plains. It meant abundance of food, which in turn meant 

' It must be told, in justice to the Platte, that the year 1842 was a year 
of phenomenal drought. 




c H oi 



n 



5 U 

rt S 






C = 

3 -c 



i' o 



A Buffalo Herd 59 

great jollity and solid comfort. Fremont's picture of this 
occasion is so well drawn that I must quote it : 

In the sight of such a mass of life, the traveller feels a strange 
emotion of grandeur. We had heard from a distance a dull and 
confused murmuring, and, when we came in view of their dark 
masses, there was not one among us who did not feel his heart 
beat quicker. It was the early part of the day, when the herds are 
feeding; and everywhere they were in motion. Here and there 
a huge old bull was rolling in the grass, and clouds of dust rose 
in the air from various parts of the bands, each the scene of some 
obstinate fight. Indians and buffalo make the poetry and life 
of the prairie, and our camp was full of their exhilaration. In 
place of the quiet monotony of the march, relieved only by the 
cracking of the whip, and an "avance done! enfant de garce!" 
shouts and songs resounded from every part of the line, and our 
evening camp was always the commencement of a feast, which 
terminated only with our departrre on the following morning. 
At any time of the night might be seen pieces of the most delicate 
and choicest meat, roasting en appolas, on sticks around the fire, 
and the guard were never without company. With pleasant 
weather and no enemy to fear, an abundance of the most excel- 
lent meat, and no scarcity of bread or tobacco, they were enjoy- 
ing the oasis of a voyageurs life. '^ 

Then followed some exciting moments in the chase, the 
buffalo being so close together in the stampede that Fre- 
mont's horse almost leaped upon them at one time. They 
secured plenty of meat and continued on up the Platte, 
on the south side of the river, the very route to-day, on 
the other side, of the Union Pacific Railway, the first line 
across the continent. At night they camped a mile and a 
half above the lower end of Brady's Island. The island 
received its name from a tragedy of several years before: 
the killing by his partner of a man of that name. Some bones 
dug out of a grave by the wolves and lying about, Fremont 
took to be those of the unfortunate. Unless a grave is 
'Memoirs, p. 86. 



6o Fremont and '49 

covered with heavy stones or timbers, the wolves are sure 
to exhxime the contents, and when one comes upon an empty 
hole in a wilderness, surrounded by the bleaching rib, leg, 
and arm bones, and perhaps the skull, a grewsome and for- 
lorn sensation is imparted to the surroundings. 

Wolves are always following the buffalo and the explorers 
had concerts of their yelps at night and saw them sitting 
near in the mornings waiting for the camp scraps. One or 
two prairie wolves, or coyotes^ as they are called, can make 
so much noise in the night, or daytime either, that one would 
think at least a hundred were there. They are harmless to 
men. There might be circumstances where they would be 
dangerous but I have never heard of any in the Far West. 
The timber wolf is bolder, though neither is he ordinarily 
dangerous, yet his deep-throated bay, sounding in some 
lonely valley on the winter air, has a thrill in it, especially 
when the sunset fades and the dark banks of jagged pines 
merge into the night. 

Fremont now made directly, in the afternoon of July 
2d, for the mouth of the South Platte, which they forded 
with as great rapidity as possible to prevent sinking in the 
quicksands. The total breadth, immediately below the 
junction, was 5350 feet. They forded only the South 
Platte with two channels, 450 feet for one and 2250 for the 
other, and by six o'clock the entire company was comfortably 
established on the point of land formed by the junction. 
Fremont gives the latitude as 41° 04' 47" and longitude 
100° 49' 43'', with an altitude of 2700 feet above sea. The 
town of North Platte now stands very near this place and 
the Union Pacific Railway determination of its altitude is 
2800 feet, proving that Fremont's barometrical observations 
were often not far wrong ; indeed were remarkably good under 
all the circumstances. His other observations at this point 

' Properly pronounced koi-oh'-tay, not Ky-oht' as is so frequently the 
custom now. Instead of a spelling reform, we need a pronunciation and 
enunciation reform. 



Grog for the ** Fourth" 6i 

were also approximately correct. The next day after 
caching (burying in the ground) a barrel of salt pork which 
they meant to pick up on the return, and which they invited 
the Cheyennes to view as it was being cached, so that they, 
not liking pork, would not return and dig it up, the entire 
party proceeded up the left bank' of the South Platte upon 
which they were, and camped in twenty-five miles, where 
there was so little wood they were obliged to utilise the 
bois de vache or "buffalo chips," the dry excrement of the 
buffalo, which burns with a hot smouldering fire, and also 
a pungent smoke that is not entirely agreeable. 

The next day was the Fourth of July, dear to all American 
hearts, whether at home or abroad, and it was accordingly 
celebrated by a morning salute, while a ration of fire-water 
was served to the men. More buffalo were encountered 
on the march this day on up the South Platte. 

In a short time they surrounded us on every side, extending 
for several miles in the rear, and forward as far as the eye could 
reach; leaving around us, as we advanced, an open space of 
only two or three hundred yards. This movement of the buf- 
falo indicated to us the presence of Indians on the North fork. 

An early stop was made and a feast to celebrate the day 
prepared, consisting of macaroni soup, dishes of choice 
buffalo meat, even fruit cake and preserves from St. Louis, 
reserved for the occasion. Doubtless the Creoles and voy- 
ageurs were filled with more enthusiasm for the American 
day after the feast and additional grog, the latter proving 
too much for the Cheyenne lad who, "to the great delight 
of his elders, made himself extremely drunk." 

While the examination of the North Platte was the chief 
object of this expedition, Fremont concluded to here divide 
his party, and himself continue on up the South Platte to 

' The terms right, and left, bank, as applied to a river, are alwa>-s used 
in one sense — always from up stream looking down, no matter in which 
direction the traveller may be moving. 



62 Fremont and '49 

St. Vrain's Fort, a trading-post almost at the foot of Long's 
Peak belonging to the well-known traders, Ceran St. Vrain, 
and the Bent brothers, and on the 5th he started with 
Maxwell, Bernier, Ayot, and his favourite Basil Lajeunesse, 
as well as the too companionable Cheyennes, whose home 
was this way. This small contingent was fitted out to travel 
light, in order to travel fast. It had one extra led horse, 
and a pack mule which was supposed to be laden with 
provisions. This supposition proved to be a delusion, for, 
when camp was made at night and some buffalo meat was 
cooking on sticks around the fire, and the pack was opened 
for flour and other necessaries of the camp cuisine, nothing 
was discovered but a little coffee. Whose fault this over- 
sight was Fremont does not say, therefore it must be laid 
to him; it was his duty to know whether his outfit was pro- 
perly provisioned. Not wishing to subject Preuss to the 
hardship of this scouting trip, Fremont sent him back to 
the other party, which, under the leadership of Clement 
Lambert, was making its way along the North Platte where 
now a branch of the Union Pacific Railway runs. Carson 
seems to have continued with the main party also, though 
no mention is made of him. Fremont went forward amidst 
herds of buffalo. On the 7th of July a small drove of wild 
horses was sighted and one of the Cheyennes, mounted on 
Fremont's spare horse, tried to capture the leader but did 
not succeed. The temperature at noon was 103° F. 

On the 8th some dark objects on the hills which they 
thought were buffalo proved to be Indians, and in a few 
minutes two or three hundred, naked to the breechcloth, 
showing they were a war party, were bearing rapidly down 
to intercept the explorers, who were making an effort to 
reach some timber for defence ; but the timber proved to be 
on the opposite side of the river. As the Indians rode up, 
the whites were about to open fire, when Maxwell recognised 
the leader and shouted in their tongue, "You're a fool, 
damn you! Don't you know me?" The Indian swerved and 



Les Deux Oreilles 63 

passed, and as Fremont came over to him he held out his 
hand, with the other striking his breast and exclaiming, 
"Arapaho!" The Arapahos are Algonquin and the Chey- 
ennes are also Algonquin. The Arapahos were disappointed; 
they were at peace with the Cheyennes and no scalps were 
possible; in fact relatives of these Cheyennes were with the 
main body. They were looking for Pawnees, but instead 
now devoted their attention to a herd of buffalo, while the 
Fremont party, after watching the fray for an hour, proceeded 
toward the village, which they found consisted of 125 lodges, 
twenty being Cheyenne. Fremont was invited to the tepee of 
the head chief, where a peace pipe was passed around and 
a large wooden dish of buffalo meat placed before the visitor. 
Other chiefs came, and it was asked what Fremont was 
doing in the country. He explained his purpose and they 
were satisfied. Neither he nor any of his men was now in 
danger of molestation from anyone connected with this 
band. Property would be entirely safe even without a 
guard, so long as it was understood whose it was. Maxwell 
was well known to this tribe, and one of his friends gave him 
a bundle of dried buffalo meat when the party rode away 
to their camp about three miles on up the river. 

The next morning they got their first glimpse of the 
Rocky Mountains, about sixty miles away; the faint, snowy 
summit of Long's Peak, called by the Frenchmen ^^ Les Deux 
Oreilles y Sighting distant mountains on a vast plain has 
the same thrill in it that sighting distant land has at sea. 
It is a thing that occurs frequently but it always has a charm, 
and on this occasion it was specially interesting, as it was 
Fremont's first view of the mountains he was to see so much 
of in future, and in which he was to experience some trying 
days. About eight o'clock they met several persons on 
horseback, one of whom proved to be the noted mulatto 
scout and trapper Jim Bccla\'ourth, whom Fremont, after 
the custom of the day, calls "Beckwith," for it seemed im- 
possible for the frontiersmen to understand that it was 



64 Fremont and '49 

spelled Beckwourth. Later, when this remarkable char- 
acter dictated his now well-known narrative, some resented 
the spelling of his name in the, to them, new way, assum- 
ing that it was done from pride, not recognising the fact that 
Beckwith is quite as stylish and honourable a name as Beck- 
wourth. ^ Beckwourth was in search of horses belonging to a 
near-by camp, presided over by another well-known frontiers- 
man, Chabonard, which Fremont reached that night, and 
rested there beneath some mighty cotton woods. Magnificent 
trees were some of these great old cotton woods of the West. 
Chabonard, with French hospitality, immediately sent 
one of his men to gather mint, with which he "concocted a 
very good julep," says Fremont, and we may be sure that 
Fremont's life with Hassler had taught him what a good 
julep was. Boiled buffalo tongue, and coffee "with sugar," 
formed the balance of the repast with which the cordial 
Chabonard welcomed them. "The people in his employ," 
remarks Fremont, "were generally Spaniards, and among 
them I saw a young Spanish woman from Taos, whom I 
found to be Beckwith's wife." Beckwourth, it may be men- 
tioned, had enjoyed many wives, mainly Indian. This 
one, born "Sefiorita Louise Sandeville," he had married this 
same year in San Fernandez de Taos, New Mexico, where he 
had operated a "store" to trade with Indians. He had then 
come north, and before the end of the year established him- 
self at what is now Pueblo, Colorado, but in 1844 he went 
on to Los Angeles, California. He makes no note of meeting 
Fremont at this time but later speaks of wishing to join him in 
the conquest of the Golden State, saying, "Colonel Fremont 
was at that junctiu-e approaching from Oregon with a force, 
if combined with the Americans resident there [in Cali- 
fornia], sufficient to conquer the whole country."^ As 

' The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth. Written from his own 
dictation by T. D. Bonner. New York, Harpers, 1856. A new edition was 
printed in recent years. 

* Beckwourth Autobiography, p. 474. 



St. Vrain's Fort 65 

Beckwourth had then ranged CaHfornia from north to south 
for some time, and also knew thoroughly all western con- 
ditions, his testimony as to this adequacy of Fremont's 
forces is important. But Beckwourth says he could not 
effect a juncture with Fremont. Instead he made his 
escape from the country, taking with him, by the way, 1800 
''stray" horses found roaming on the ranches. This was 
probably the time that the redoubtable Pegleg Smith refers 
to. "On this grand raid he [Pegleg] had six white men and 
about one hundred and fifty Indians, according to Rubi- 
deaux, Jim Beckwourth having preceded the party as a spy, 
according to Colonel Williams. . . . Jim spied out the land 
and when Pegleg appeared in the Cajon Pass was ready to 
counsel and guide him."^ When Beckwourth got back to 
his "fort" at Pueblo, Colorado, he found his wife, Louise, 
married again, deceived by a false communication. She 
"offered herself back," but Beckwourth declined the offer. 
On the loth of July, Fremont and his small party con- 
tinued to the trading-post of St. Vrain, an adobe structure, 
which stood not far from the present town of Evans, Colo- 
rado, somewhat farther up stream, on the right, or south, 
bank of the South Platte, and a mile below the mouth of 
St. Vrain's Creek. Marcellus (?) St. Vrain received them 
with great hospitality and assisted them as far as possible. 
Hospitality, of course, was then the rule and for many years 
after, in the West, even down to the present time, away 
from the cities. This post was in direct touch with New 
Mexico ; Taos and Santa Fe being the centres of supply and 
communication. Several Spaniards came in searching for 
employment, and Fremont engaged one, "who proved to 
be an active, laborious man and was of very considerable 
service." Fremont regretted that he could not go into the 
mountains now looming so near, but his orders would not 

' Reminiscences of a Ranger, Major Horace Bell, p. 283. Pegleg Smith 
"died in a drunken fit about 1868 in Calaveras Co., California. " — Hobbs, Wild 
Life, p. 46. 

5 



66 Fremont and '49 

permit of delay at this point. At any rate he saw quite 
enough of them in the future. Columns of smoke rolled 
up in the south, where the forest had been on fire several 
months, and we know now that these forest fires annually de- 
stroyed immense amounts of timber before and since. A 
prairie fire, compared with a forest fire, is like the flame of a 
match compared with a blast furnace. Everybody who has 
been in the western mountains is familiar with that almost 
constant column of black smoke in summer; everybody 
knows that millions of dollars worth of timber are annually 
lost by this cause, yet in the more than forty years that my 
attention has been held by the West, no intelligent effort 
has ever been made to prevent or even to control, these 
destructive fires. 

Fremont estimated here what he mentions as a "toler- 
ably correct longitude" of 105° 12' 12" but it is actually 
nearer 104° 51'. The altitude he made 5400 feet. The 
Geological Survey gives it 5120 feet. On the 12th of 
Jiily they struck out for Fort Laramie, 125 miles to the 
north across the plains, where they were to meet the other 
part of the expedition which all this time was following the 
North Platte westward. With the added power of two 
horses and three good mules, the new Spaniard, and the 
guest places of the Cheyennes taken by two Spaniards who 
wished to go to Laramie, they proceeded. Provisions were 
scarce at St. Vrain's because of the non-arrival of an 
expected supply train from Taos, and they were obliged to 
rely on the game to be shot. A few pounds of coffee were 
obtained and they had dried meat sufficient for one day. 
The valley of the Platte resembled a garden "glorious with 
wild flowers." At noon they were on the Cache a la Poudre, 
ten miles from St. Vrain's and just a year later, in July, 1843, 
Fremont was here again on his westward way, and he then 
went up the Cache a la Poudre to reach Salt Lake. Nothing 
of any special interest occurred on the way to Fort Laramie. 
The course was nearly north; N. N. E. and then N. N. W. 



Fort Laramie 67 

for five days. They met with plenty of buffalo, and there 
was no lack of water, and on the evening of July 15th a 
trading-post, called Fort Platte, came in view on the point 
of land at the junction of the Laramie and the North Platte; 
an unfinished adobe affair belonging to Sybille, Adams, and 
Company. A few hundred yards beyond Fort Platte was 
Fort Laramie of the American Fur Company, sometimes 
then called Fort John. It stood on the left bank about 
twenty -five feet above the river, with an imposing military 
air derived from its "lofty walls, whitewashed and picketed, 
with the large bastions at the angles." 

Mr. Boudeau, in charge, received the travellers with a 
hospitality that was all the more complete from the fact that 
Fremont bore letters from the company in St. Louis for 
him. The other branch of the expedition was encamped 
not far away, having arrived, in good condition the day 
before yesterday, the 13th. As they had come along the 
main Oregon Trail they knew more about present condi- 
tions to the westward than the smaller party, and Fremont 
was suddenly confronted with several difficulties in the way 
of further advance toward the goal of this expedition. 




^^l^ i i^|^ <| i i t|^^ ^ ll| %l|>f^(%i^%ii^^i| ^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^ 




CHAPTER IV 

TO SOUTH PASS AND FR^MONT's PEAK 

Meeting Jim Bridger — Unwelcome News — Bissonette the Interpreter — A 
Feast of Dog — Structure of Fort Laramie — A Warning Ignored — Drought, 
Grasshoppers and Anxiety — Mending a Barometer — Snow-Capped 
Mountains and South Pass — The Second Barrier Surmounted and 
The Highest Summit Attained. 



WHILE Fremont had been ascending the South 
Platte, over the same route Major Long followed 
in 1820, his other party proceeded, according 
to his direction, up the North Platte over the Oregon Trail. 
On the third day about the time for camping, the usual 
monotony of travel on the plains was suddenly broken by 
the alarm of "Indians"! There was much immediate 
confusion and preparations were made for defence; but, in 
a few moments, the enemy were discovered to be a returning 
party of trappers and traders under the leadership of the 
famous mountaineer Jim Bridger. The day being so nearly 
spent the new comers turned back on the trail with the 
Fremont party and all encamped together. Bridger took 
supper with the Fremont men, and during the course of 
it, related some recent experiences that very much disturbed 
their serenity. 

In the first place the Sioux had been growing more hostile 
and with bands of Cheyennes and Gros Ventres, were out on 
the war-path which at present was the Oregon Trail farther 
westward particularly at a point called Red Buttes, in the 
very path indeed, of this Fremont expedition, Bridger 
and his men were just coming from that country where they 

68 



A Bad Scare 69 

had, the previous year, August, 1841, a fierce encounter with 
the Indians. The battle took place at or near Fraeb's Post, 
to the south-westward of Fort Laramie about 150 miles, on 
the headwaters of Yampa River, on St. Vrain's Fork, near the 
Elk Head Mountains (approximately lat. 40^45', long. 107° 
30') and the leader of the party of sixty men, Henry Fraeb, 
was killed, as well as four of his companions.^ They had 
in turn killed ten of the Sioux. Bridger had avoided Red 
Buttes by cutting across to the south of them through the 
Laramie Mountains, then called the Black Hills, but the 
Fremont expedition in executing their orders would neces- 
sarily march exactly past the place and the company was 
excited by the prospect of falling into an Indian fight. 
Preuss was disgusted with their attitude and remarks: 
"I expected to find everyone prepared for occurrences of this 
nature; but to my great surprise I found on the contrary 
that this news had thrown them all into the greatest con- 
sternation, and on every side I heard them exclaim, 'II rCy 
aura pas de vie pour nous.' " (This is no life for us.) If sixty 
hardy mountain men had come off so badly in the clash with 
the Sioux, the voyageurs probably reasoned that their own 
chances would be slim. Many of them wanted to turn 
back at once, but, urged by Lambert and several others, 
they consented to continue, at least as far as Fort Laramie, 
and here they were, for the time being, perfectly safe. 
Bridger had offered to go with the expedition as far as the 
head of the Sweetwater, that is to South Pass, but there was 
no one present with power to make an agreement with him. 
His services would have been valuable, yet as they had 
those of Kit Carson, an equally good frontiersman, they 
were not necessary. 

' Henry Fraeb is mentioned in the Fremont Report as " Frapp, " the usual 
pronunciation of the time. Fraeb was a brave, skilful, axid experienced moun- 
taineer and had been in this field some fifteen years. Fremont states 
that the battle took place on "Snake" River but this means "Little" Snake 
River, a tributary of the Yampa in the region indicated. Frdmont passes 
that way in 1844, going up St. Vrain's Fork for a number of miles. 



70 Fremont and '49 

Bridger had met at Laramie, the Oregon caravan, which 
had preceded Fremont all the way, and he had no news of 
an encouraging nature for them either.^ Besides the pros- 
pect of trouble with the Sioux and other tribes, the drought 
and the grasshoppers had combined to destroy the grass 
along the road; and, without grass, it was not possible for 
their teams to haul the heavy waggons. They concluded, 
therefore, to change to pack animals at this point, and ac- 
cordingly sold their cattle and waggons, the cattle being 
nearly unable to walk because of the worn condition of 
their hoofs. ^ The prices they got for their waggons, etc., was 
what they had paid for them. The goods they bought, by 
exchange, were excessively high ; coffee and sugar at a dollar 
a pound, for example. The horses they received were in poor 
condition, and Fremont says they died before the emigrants 
reached the mountains. And thus, even while en route, 
did the rose-colour turn to grey for these sanguine travellers ; 
but it was a story that was to be written over and over, 
and still over again, often with far darker colours, in the 
immediate years to come. 

The emigrants met with one piece of luck. Returning 
with Bridger was Thomas Fitzpatrick, his close associate, 
and one of the most expert and experienced of all the noted 
mountaineers. He was, in fact, the peer of both Carson and 
Bridger; wise in directing and protecting a party from the 
attacks of the hostiles. He consented to go on with these emi- 
grants as far as Fort Hall (near the present town of Blackfoot 
on Snake River, Idaho), the Hudson Bay post originally 

* Bridger himself was by no means discouraged. He went the following 
year, 1843, to Black's Fork of Green River and there set up his "fort" for 
assisting and trading with emigrants as well as Indians. The chief factor of 
this establishment was a blacksmith shop. The place became a United 
States post later. Chittenden considers the founding of Fort Bridger, 1843, 
as the end of the trapper period. 

' Waggons had not been taken as yet beyond Fort Hall on the Oregon 
Trail. Whitman took a two-wheeled vehicle in 1836 as far as Fort Boise 
on Snake River with great difficulty. 



On, to South Pass 71 

founded by the sanguine and enthusiastic American Wyeth, in 
1834, and sold in 1836 because the Hudson Bay Company 
made it impossible for him to remain in the country as a 
trader. This party had proceeded on its way about ten days 
before Fremont's arrival, and they were followed by a band 
of 350 warriors, evidently with the object of attacking 
the party if a favourable opportunity arose. About eight 
hundred lodges were involved in this war movement, most 
of them at this time near Red Buttes, so Fitzpatrick and 
his emigrants were between two forces; the great encamp- 
ment somewhere in advance and the several hundred 
warriors following. The latter overtook them at Independ- 
ence Rock, but made no attack, and the next day the whites 
ran into the central assemblage. During the whole of the 
following night the fate of the emigrants was debated by the 
chiefs, Fitzpatrick arguing for them, and his words finally 
won. They were allowed to continue unmolested. 

Carson's judgment was that the Fremont party would 
almost certainly have trouble as they went forward on the 
Oregon Trail, and he emphasised his opinion by making his 
will, a circumstance which instilled increased fear in most 
of Fremont's followers, some of whom now requested to be 
discharged. It was, of course, absolutely necessary for 
Fremont to proceed to South Pass, for it was he, himself, who 
had caused the original orders to be changed and extended to 
include that point; and, furthermore, the whole expedition 
had been concocted by Fremont, Senator Benton, and the 
" circle, " in order to determine exactly what now he would 
best be able to determine, namely, the best positions for 
military posts to protect emigrants from the very troubles 
which the caravan ahead was experiencing. To fail at this 
point because of the prospect of a skirmish with the enemy 
would have been to return in ignominy. And there was 
still another reason for going ahead at all hazard, and this 
was that Fremont was not a West Point graduate. Benton 
exclaims: "He did not enter the army through the gat^ 



^2 Fremont and '49 

of West Point and was considered an intrusive officer by the 
graduates of that institution."^ The prospective jeers of 
West Pointers would be sufficient to push him on, had he 
exhibited any sign of faltering, which he did not. It seems 
never to have occurred to him for an instant that the expedi- 
tion for any reason might have to halt short of its objective. 
He believed that his principal danger was in being 
attacked before the Indians should know who he was and his 
purely scientific object, so like a wise general, he engaged 
to explain for him, an interpreter named Bissonette, whom 
he met at Fort Platte, the neighbour fort of Laramie, and 
Bissonette (Parkman in his Oregon Trail writes it Bisonette) 
advised the engaging of two or three old men from the village 
of the warriors, which had now arrived at Fort Laramie to 
await the return of their braves who had gone to harass the 
emigrants. Bissonette was willing to go as far as Red Buttes 
and that was as far as the Sioux would dare go, on account 
of their enemies the Snakes and Crows beyond. Bissonette's 
scheme was to trade with the returning party of Indians, 
showing that he, at any rate, was on friendly terms with 
them. Fremont, concluding that it would be better to have 
an interpreter for part of the distance than to have none 
at all, engaged him. Meanwhile Fremont made observa- 
tions, and plotted up his map as well as he could with the 
many interruptions by the people of the country, especially 
when the whole village had arrived. He accepted an invi- 
tation to a dog feast and when he reached the place, 

the women and children were sitting outside the lodge, and we 
took our seats on buffalo robes spread around. The dog was in 
a large pot over the fire, in the middle of the lodge, and imme- 
diately on our arrival was dished up in large wooden bowls, one 

* Benton's Thirty Years, p. 478, vol. 2. A good deal has been said about 
this animosity of the West Point men to Fremont, but is it likely that these 
men who are specially trained in questions of honour and magnanimity would 
descend to backbiting of so contemptible a character? 



Dog Soldiers 73 

of which was handed to each. The flesh appeared very gluti- 
nous with something of the flavour and appearance of mutton. 



Their lodges were pitched near the fort, and our camp was 
constantly crowded with Indians of all sizes, from morning un- 
til night, at which time some of the soldiers generally came to 
drive them all off to the village. My tent was the only place 
which they respected. Here only came the chiefs and men of 
distinction, and generally one of them remained to drive away 
the women and children. The numerous strange instruments, 
applied to still stranger uses, excited awe and admiration among 
them; and those which I used in talking with the sun and stars 
they looked upon with especial reverence, as mysterious things 
of great medicine. 

The "soldiers" to whom he refers here were the "dog 
soldiers" who act as policemen of the Indian camp, not 
American soldiers.^ Almost every Indian village had a 
kind of police system, and any resistance to authority was 
severely punished. 

When all was ready to proceed westward on the Oregon 
Trail, Fremont assembled his men and told them the march 
would be resumed the next day, that he believed the rumours 
of trouble had been exaggerated, and that anyway the 
difficulties were only such as were to be expected. Besides 
they were well armed, and also had known of the unsettled 
condition of the country before leaving St. Louis ; however, 
if any wished to back out they were to step forward and 
receive their discharge. Only one did so, and he went to 
the upper Missouri the day after the Fremont party started 
west. The two boys Randolph and Henry, for their safety, 
were left at the fort, as well as some baggage and field notes. 

' Beckwourth in his narrative says, p. 249, " By this time my Dog Soldiers, 
the bravest men in the nation, were surrounding me." He was a chief of the 
Crows at the time. Sec article on " Military Societies," Handbook of A merican 
Indians, U. S. Bur. of Elhnolosiy, Pt. i, p. 861. Also Parkman's Oregon 
Trail, p. 246, chapter xvi., 1894 edition. 



74 Fremont and '49 

A barometer was set up which Galpin, one of the clerks, 
consented to read. The longitude was calculated to be 
104° 47' 43'' and the altitude 4470 feet above sea. The 
true longitude is about 104° 32' and the altitude 4250 feet. 

The establishment on which the Fremont expedition 
was about to turn their backs, called Fort Laramie (after 
Joseph Larame a trapper^ drowned here in 182 1), and which 
was chosen afterwards in 1849, as one of the sites for a gov- 
ernment military station, was a most important point in the 
Western country, especially on the Oregon Trail, as Fremont 
points out in his report. The post originally was on a 
different site not far away, and was called Fort William, 
after one of its owners, William Sublette, built in 1834. It 
was called Fort John, in 1835, after John B. Sarpy. Bridger, 
Fitzpatrick, and Sublette owned it together, when they sold 
it in 1836 to the American Fur Company. The fort of 
Fremont's time was erected in 1836.^ Fremont described 
it thus : 

the fort, is a quadrangular structure, built of clay, after the fash- 
ion of the Mexicans, who are generally employed in building 
them. The walls are about fifteen feet high, surmounted with a 
wooden palisade, and form a portion of ranges of houses, which 
entirely surround a yard of about one hundred and thirty feet 
square. Every apartment has its door and window, — all, of 
course, opening on the inside. There are two entrances, op- 
posite each other, and midway the wall, one of which is a large 
and public entrance; the other smaller and more private — a 
sort of postern gate. Over the great entrance is a square tower 
with loopholes, and, like the rest of the work, built of earth. 
At two of the angles, and diagonally opposite each other, are 
large square bastions, so arranged as to sweep the four faces of 
the walls. 

' A footnote, p. 24 in Forty Years a Fur Trader, by Dr. Elliott Coues, says 
the fort was named after a trapper or voyageur called La Ramie. The fort 
was first garrisoned by U. S. troops in July, 1849, by Go's C and D., mounted 
rifles under Major W. F. Sanderson. Larpenteur wrote it La Ramie. It is 
said La Ramie was killed by the Arapahos. 



A Warning 75 

The great entrance, which was floored, was used in summer 
as a shady sitting-place, the breezes sweeping through it 
refreshingly. Francis Parkman, the historian, was here 
in 1846 and his description in The Oregon Trail, is in- 
teresting. The room assigned to him by "Bordeaux" 
(Fremont writes it Boudeau) the bourgeois, or superinten- 
dent, contained, 

a rough bedstead but no bed ; two chairs, a chest of drawers, a 
tin pail to hold water, and a board to cut tobacco upon. A 
brass crucifix hung on the wall, and close at hand a recent 
scalp, with hair full a yard long, was suspended from a 
nail. [This was the best room.] . . . Within, the fort 
is divided by a partition: on one side is the square area, 
surrounded by the store-rooms, offices, and apartments of 
the inmates; on the other is the corral, a narrow place, encom- 
passed by the high clay walls where at night, or in the pres- 
ence of dangerous Indians, the horses and mules of the fort 
are crowded for safe keeping. The main entrance has two gates 
with an arched passage intervening. A little square window, 
high above the ground, opens laterally from an adjoining 
chamber into this passage ; so that when the inner gate is closed 
and barred, a person without may still hold communication with 
those within, through this narrow aperture. . . . This precaution 
. . . is seldom resorted to at Fort Laramie; where, though 
men were frequently killed in the neighbotuhood, no appre- 
hensions are felt of any general designs of hostility from the 
Indians. 

On July 2 1st, the morning set for the departure from 
Fort Laramie, on the second stage of this journey, when 
everything was ready for the march, Fremont and several 
others went by invitation to the fort for a "stirrup cup," 
with their friends. As they sat in a cool room quaffing 
the beverage a number of chiefs suddenly walked uncere- 
moniously in and presented a letter written by Bissonette, 
to the effect, that the chiefs had just told him to warn Fre- 
mont not to start until the war party had returned, as the 



76 Fremont and '49 

chiefs were certain they would fire on the white men. It 
would be seven or eight days before this party came back. 
The letter was followed by several brief speeches from the 
Indians; all warnings not at present to leave the fort. In 
reply Fremont, through the interpretation of Boudeau, in- 
vited two or three of them to accompany him, which they 
declined to do, and he said further: 

We are few and you are many and may kill us all ; but there 
will be much crying in your villages, for many of your young men 
will stay behind and forget to return with your warriors from the 
mountains. Do you think that our great chief will let his soldiers 
die, and forget to cover their graves? Before the snows melt 
again, his warriors will sweep away your villages as the fire does 
the prairie in the autumn. 

A young man was finally sent along, or at least was to 
join the party at the night camp, which he did, on the pro- 
mise of the gift of a horse. At the same time Bissonette 
also joined them. Fremont had made a slight detour from 
the regular way and as it was supposed that Bissonette 
knew the country, and as he advised going ahead, rather 
than striking for the road, the party had two or three rough 
days in the hills. He had not been far from the fort in this 
direction. When they were on the regular road again, that 
is on the Oregon Trail, they had no trouble; anybody could 
follow that. It is a trifle puzzling that Fremont does not 
more frequently mention Kit Carson at Laramie. He does 
not quote Carson's opinion on a single decision, at this time, 
and yet there was no one in the company, or out of it, whose 
judgment was more valuable. He had had sixteen years ex- 
perience in the mountains. It may be that Fremont had not 
yet realised this fact, especially as Carson was only about 
four years older than himself. 

Fremont now noted a decided change in the character of 
the country; from the vast plains, timberless, dotted with 
herds of buffalo, with rich grasses, to a rough mountainous. 




fl t3 ? 

^ - X 

30c 

O 'a ° 

o .S K 
Cd s • 

■^ rt 
u u 
o iio 

^ 2 
« 2 
•a ;? 

;s 



An Indian Row 77 

sandy region where the artemisia, or sage-brush, predomi- 
nated as vegetation. "Wherever the beaten track was left, 
on the hills, and over the river bottoms, the tough, twisted, 
wiry clumps, rendered the progress of the carts rough and 
slow. . . . The whole air is strongly impregnated and satu- 
rated with the odour of camphor and spirits of turpentine 
which belongs to this plant." The climate of the Rocky 
Mountains thus early, had achieved a reputation for cura- 
tive influence, especially for consumptives, and Fremont 
thought it may have been due to this aromatic impregnation 
of the air. The party kept along the North Platte River on 
the south side and found grass for the animals none too 
abundant on account of the prolonged drought and the 
myriads of grasshoppers which rose in clouds as the horses 
advanced. 

They came to a place where the Indians had felled cotton- 
wood trees in order that their horses might browse on the 
twigs. This is frequently done in winter but seldom was 
it necessary, at that time, in summer, for the country had 
not been grazed down; especially not by sheep, which in- 
variably ruin a range for cattle and horses. I have known it 
to be resorted to in some regions, in recent years, when the 
winters were long and severe and the snows deep. Fremont 
adopted the idea now and had his men chop down enough 
young trees to satisfy his stock for the time being. 

On leaving this place there was an alarm of Indians by 
the scouts ahead and the cavalcade instantly formed for 
defence in an advantageous position with the carts made 
into a close barricade, within which the animals were hoppled 
and picketed. Bissonette and the Indian went to meet the 
enemy, which proved to be two sulky Sioux from the party 
which had followed the emigrants. This band had dis- 
agreed at Independence Rock on the subject of attacking 
the white travellers, and because of this had broken up into 
several bands which were returning to the fort by different 
routes. These two were of the faction that had advocated 



78 Fremont and '49 

destroying the emigrants, and some of Fremont's men on 
learning this wanted to shoot them; but, of course, he con- 
demned that inspiration at once. The Sioux said the 
country ahead was devoid of grass, and that there were no 
buffalo, which made the prospect for completing the march 
to South Pass more dubious than ever. About twenty-one 
miles further, camp was made on the Platte, and that 
evening six more of the Sioux came in. They said that a 
large party of their people was in camp, a few miles beyond; 
not particularly cheerful intelligence, but nevertheless the 
leader went about his observations as usual and worked out 
the longitude 104° 59' 59'' and latitude 42° 39' 25''. This 
camp was at the mouth of Labonte Creek, coming in from 
the south side and very near the site of the present town of 
Labonte, Wyoming. Labonte was one of the well-known 
trappers of the fur-hunting period. 

The next day was a lucky one, for at night they had 
fairly good grass, plenty of wood, and, of course, all the water 
they needed, and saw some buffalo; the last item the most 
important of all, considering their almost empty larder. 
The consequence was that on the 25th they made only 
thirteen miles and halted about where the town of Inez 
stands, to jerk buffalo meat with the object of getting a supply 
for ten or fifteen days. The process of "jerking" buffalo 
meat, beef, or any other, is simple. When it is done pro- 
perly the meat will keep in a dry climate almost indefinitely. 
It is usually cut into strips, say about two inches wide and 
eight or ten long. These are laid on a low scaffold made of 
Cottonwood, or willow, sticks, or are strung on willow withes 
and then hung across the scaffold. Beneath the scaffold a 
smoky fire should be, but not always is, kept going. While 
this is not a necessity in such a climate, it accelerates the 
jerking or drying process and keeps away the flies. ^ Beef 

' The air of the Rocky Mountain region and through to the Sierra Nevada, 
especially the air of the South -western area, is so dry and aseptic that animal 
matter is soon dessicated. I remember once seeing a horse, that had died on 




X 



■^ 



A Barometer Broken 79 

that becomes "blown" may, if it gets damp, develop larvae 
which do not add to the flavour, as I can testify from per- 
sonal experience. On the North-west coast, and in Alaska, 
salmon is dried this way without a fire, and I have seen 
swarms of blow-flies taking advantage of the opportunity. 
One misfortune befell here; the breaking of a baro- 
meter. Fremont had been so tender with these instruments, 
desiring to get them through to the mountains, that he was 
much disappointed; he had but one left. The expedition 
continued its way on the 26th of July, toward the final goal, 
with buffalo meat for fifteen days stored in the carts. Every 
day at noon Fremont took observations of the "sun's meri- 
dian altitude"; in fact he was indefatigable in securing all 
the data possible, whether fortune smiled or frowned. The 
night of the 26th they halted at the mouth of Deer Creek, 
not far from the present town of Glenrock, for years a 
favourite camp-groimd for travellers over the Oregon Trail. 
The stream is still known by the old name. On the 28th of 
July, twenty-nine miles west of Deer Creek, they came to the 
place where the Oregon Trail crossed to the north bank, pre- 
paratory to the cut-off to the Sweetwater. Here the river was 
two hundred feet wide in several channels, though the entire 
width of the bed was from eight to fifteen hundred feet. The 
depth now was about three feet with a rocky bottom. They 
had crossed and recrossed the river several times on July 
27th looking for grass, for in the low state of water this year 
it was fordable almost anywhere. When animals have to 
depend on the grass of the country, considerable search is 
sometimes required before a proper camping-place is found. 
Four miles beyond the ford more Indians were met, part of 
the great assemblage, which they said was dispersed. Most 
of them had taken a route to the southward of the river 
for a distance in order to secure grass reporting that not 

the range from starvation in winter, whose carcass had dried whole, and some- 
one the following summer had braced it upright against a large sage-brush so 
that it resembled, a little way off, a live animal. 



8o Fremont and '49 

only was there no grass, but no buffalo in the whole country- 
ahead. 

This condition of the country, evidently, had cooled the 
war ardoiu: of these bands, for Indians never go on the war- 
path when circumstances are not favourable. Bissonette 
interpreted the statements of the Sioux and then added, for 
himself, the urgent advice to turn back from this point. 
Fremont, however, did not look at the situation in that light. 
He assembled his men, told them the prospects, asserted 
his own intention to proceed, but in view of the difficulties 
that seemed to threaten, said any who wished to could return 
with Bissonette who had now completed his engagement. 
Every man of them stood by their leader and Basil La- 
jeunesse exclaimed, "We '11 eat the mules!" Only one man 
went back, and Fremont sent him because of a wound in 
the leg. 

The carts were unloaded and secreted in the willows 
after being dismembered, all unnecessary articles were 
cached in a pit dug in the ground, and on July 29th at seven 
in the morning, the train, now a pack-train, that is all the 
baggage was slung on horses or mules, started on the last 
lap of this expedition before heading eastward again. In- 
stead of following the Oregon Trail across to the Sweetwater 
at Independence Rock, Fremont concluded to keep on up 
the North Platte to the mouth of the Sweetwater and in a 
few miles came to a noted landmark, the red sandstone 
escarpments called the Red Buttes, near which the Indians 
had assembled in their war mood. Luckily good grass was 
found in the narrow pass through which the river ran at this 
place and their animals fared well. In about twenty miles 
they came again into more open country, and camped in 
Fremont's longitude 106° 54' 32'' and latitude, 42° 38'. The 
next day after proceeding on the North Platte twelve miles 
higher, Carson advised crossing to the Sweetwater. They 
consequently retraced their path to a grassy island to encamp 
early and explore the neighbourhood. On the following 



Independence Rock 8i 

day, the last of July they cut across in fifteen miles from 
their ("Goat") island camp to the Sweetwater and were 
happy to discover several bands of buffalo. In seven miles 
the next day, they arrived within a mile of Independence 
Rock, the most famous landmark on the Oregon Trail. 
Many travellers before and since have described this 
mass of granite, about six hundred and fifty yards long and 
forty yards high, according to Fremont. It is 838 miles 
from Kansas City, by the Trail — that wonderful Oregon 
Trail — which Chittenden in his excellent work on the 
American Fur Trade declares, 

as a highway of travel is the most remarkable known to history/ 
Considering the fact that it originated with the spontaneous use 
of travellers; that no transit ever located a foot of it; that no 
level established its grades; that no engineer sought out the 
fords or built any bridges or surveyed the mountain passes ; that 
there was no grading to speak of nor any attempt at metalling 
the road bed ; and the general good quality of this two thousand 
miles of highway will seem most extraordinary. Father de 
Smet who was bom in Belgium, the home of good roads, pro- 
nounced the Oregon Trail one of the finest highways in the 
world. 

At the time, when we are following Fremont over this 
historical road it existed as originally developed by the trap- 
pers and fur- traders, except that since 1832, Bonneville's 
time, waggons had been used up to Fort Hall instead of pack 
trains. Almost every noted man of the early West had been 
over it or some part of it, and had left his name on the 
surface of Independence Rock, which received its title 
probably about 1825, from the circumstance of a party of 
trappers having celebrated Fourth of July, "Independence 
Day" alongside of this peculiar outcropping of granite. 

' See Chittenden's History of the American Fur Trade, vol. i, chapter xxvi, 
for detailed description of the Oregon Trail; also as before noted, Parkman's 
book. 
6 



82 Fremont and '49 

Chittenden says it covers an area of more than twenty-seven 
acres with the highest point 1 55 feet above the river. Fremont 
made its position, longitude 107° 56', latitude 42° 29' 36". 
The locality is marked now by the town of Independence, 
Wyoming. Five miles beyond the expedition came to another 
famous landmark, "The Devil's Gate," where the Sweet- 
water carves a canyon through a granite ridge. Several 
days' travel up the valley of the Sweetwater, without special 
incident except cold, rainy weather brought them on August 
8th to the summit of the South Pass, the place so much 
talked of and written about in those days, a pass with none 
of the characteristics of a mountain pass, with so gradual 
a rise and so wide a horizon that Fremont at first was un- 
certain of the actual summit. 

The distance from Kansas City he calculated to be 950 
miles. Chittenden states the distance to be 947 (in 1901), 
so that Fremont was very exact in this distance, for the three 
miles difference with the computation of fifty-nine years 
later may easily be accounted for by some slight change of 
route. 

In later years Fremont was censured for claiming to be 
the "discoverer" of South Pass. It was his fate to be con- 
demned and misrepresented very often, on no better ground 
than this alleged claim. The fact is he never made such 
a claim, nor even hinted at it. He knew very well that the 
pass had been discovered and travelled many years before, 
and everyone else who knew the West at all understood it. 
There could be no doubt on that point. Chittenden (p. 
475) says, "The discovery of the pass is lost in the historic 
obscurity of this early period," and that "the returning 
party of Astorians (Robert Stuart's) in 18 12 came very near 
passing through it but were deflected from the route by the 
fear of following too closely a band of Indians." He further 
awards the discovery to Etienne Provost, one of the earliest 
men in the Rocky Mountains, the same Vhomme des mon- 
tagnes, who was with Nicollet and Fremont in 1839. 



Ramsay Crooks 83 

But there seems to be no question that Robert Stuart 
and his party in October, 1812, while they apparently went 
a trifle south of the regular Indian trail, actually went 
through the pass and were the first white men to come over 
it, and they came from the West; from Astoria. Robert 
Stuart states in his diary' under the entry of Saturday, 
October 17th, "All these creeks are tributary streams of 
Spanish River [Green-Colorado] and take their rise in the 
ridge of mountains to the east which is the main range of the 
R.M. " [Rocky Mountains Wind River Range.] Coming 
across the heads of these tributaries of Green River east- 
wardly till the Wind River Range ended "abruptly," part 
of the time on an Indian trail, undoubtedly the regular trail 
through South Pass, they continued on it after it turned sharp- 
ly E, N. E. in a north of east direction for three miles, when 
they struck south-east, eighteen miles with the Wind River 
Range on their left and an elevated ridge on the right. They 
were, therefore, apparently in South Pass and the ridge on the 
right was probably Table Mountain which is about twenty 
miles from the north side of the pass. They finally struck 
directly eastward, after following a watercourse which they 
thought a "water of the Missouri," because the stream did 
not seem to be going the way they wished. The Sweetwater 
swings at first to the northward. They practically paral- 
leled the Sweetwater about tw^enty miles south, and met the 
North Platte that distance above the Sweetwater mouth. 

Ramsay Crooks, w^ho was one of Stuart's companions 
on this journey, and a prominent man of the day, was much 
incensed at the time of Fremont's presidential campaign 
over statements that Fremont was the "discoverer" of 
South Pass, and he wrote a letter, dated New York, June 
26th, 1846 (printed in the New York Commercial Advertiser 
of July 1 6th), addressed to Anthony Dudgeon of Detroit, 

' A typewritten copy, as before noted, is in the New York Public Library. 
The diary is unpublished except as it, or notes from it, was incorporated in 
Irving'Si4,s/orio. 



84 Fremont and '49 

condemning the claim and stating that he and the others 
of the Stuart party "came through the celebrated South 
Pass in the month of November, 1812."'' This seems to 
establish, in connection with Stuart's diary, that these were 
the first white men to cross the continental divide by that 
route. 

The Fremont party, still on the travelled Oregon Trail, 
now went over to the waters of the Pacific; to the Little 
Sandy, Big Sandy, and other tributaries of Green River 
which find their source in the beautiful Wind River Range, 
close on their right. On the evening of the ninth Fremont 
camped on the "first New Fork" near two isolated hills 
called Two Buttes. The next morning was frosty and clear. 
"A lofty snow peak of the mountains is glittering in the first 
rays of the sun. The scenery becomes hourly more interest- 
ing and grand, and the view here is truly magnificent. The 
mountain peaks are gleaming like silver." The whole sur- 
roundings now enthused them all with their beauty and 
grandeur. It is a region of a myriad lakes, and leaving the 
valley, Fremont soon comes on one of the larger ones. 

We were soon involved in very broken ground, among long 
ridges covered with fragments of granite. Winding our way 
up a long ravine, we came unexpectedly in view of a most 
beautiful lake, set like a gem in the mountains. The sheet of 
water lay transversely across the direction we had been pursu- 
ing; and, descending the steep, rocky ridge, where it was neces- 
sary to lead our horses, we followed its banks to the southern 
extremity. Here a view of the utmost magnificence and 
grandeur burst upon our eyes. With nothing between us and 
their feet to lessen the effect of the whole height, a grand bed 
of snow-capped mountains rose before us, pile upon pile, glow- 
ing in the bright light of an August day. Immediately below 
them lay the lake, between two ridges, covered with dark pines, 
which swept down from the main chain to the spot where we 
stood. 

'Stuart's diary records October 19-20 as the dates on which they rounded 
the southern end of the Wind River Range. 



Mending a Barometer 85 

This lake was about three miles long and was named 
Mountain Lake. It is the headwater of the third New 
Fork and the camp made here on the north side near the 
outlet, was the most western point of Fremont's obser- 
vations. He made its longitude 110° 08' 03" and lati- 
tude 42° 49' 49". It was named Bernier's Encampment. 
Here he very ingeniously repaired his barometer, the last 
one, the glass cistern of which had been broken in cross- 
ing a stream. A mercurial barometer is simply a tube 
of mercury thirty inches high, sealed at one end, with 
the lower, open end, immersed in a small cup, or cistern, 
of mercury. The air pressure on the cistern holds the mer- 
cury at sea-level at a height, theoretically, of thirty inches. 
If the tube is taken to an altitude where the air is less dense 
the mercury falls. The difference enables one versed in 
barometry to calculate the difference in feet or meters, 
between one place and the other. 

All Fremont needed was a new cistern but he found every 
glass vial, which he tried to cut, broke. At length he dis- 
covered a thin powder horn, a part of which he boiled, 
stretched, and scraped thin, as it had to be transparent in 
order to observe a contact pin, to which the cistern mercury 
must be adjusted by a thumb screw on the flexible bottom, 
in order to maintain regular conditions. A jjiece of skin 
from one of the vials made the flexible bottom, and the 
whole was put together with glue manufactured from a 
buffalo. Fremont was eager to make out the altitude of 
the high peak which he planned to climb, and now he was 
once more prepared. He was in the very centre of the region 
where the six great rivers find their tiny beginnings in the 
mountain rills born of the melting snows. He had intended 
circumtouring the range by the west end after making the 
ascent, but lack of provisions and time prevented. Had 
he done so he would have passed very near to the spot where 
Bonneville, years before, built his "fort" which was soon 
abandoned. Fremont, himself, threw up a rough fortification 



86 Fremont and '49 

where he was, and leaving Bernier and a party, to defend 
it, he took the other men and went at the task of climb- 
ing to the highest glittering summit. After some rough 
work in finding the best path, riding where they could, on 
the second day, Preuss was slightly injured by a fall, Lambert 
and Descoteaux, as well as Fremont, were taken sick at an 
altitude of something over ten thousand feet, and a return 
was made to a temporary camp. Finally on the third day, 
August 15th, all went well, and with Preuss, Basil Lajeunesse, 
Lambert, Janisse and Descoteaux, the goal was attained; a 
narrow crest about three feet in width, where only one at a 
time could stand. A ramrod stuck in a crevice served as a 
staff from which was "unfurled the national flag to wave in 
the breeze where never flag waved before." This was the 
flag with an eagle in the field of stars. It is now in the 
Southwest Museum, Los Angeles. 

The barometer was set up, and observations taken, which 
gave the figures, 13,570 feet as the height above sea. The 
actual height now more carefully established is 13,730 feet.' 
While they were sitting on the summit rock a solitary honey- 
bee flew up and lit on the knee of one of the men. Fremont 
pressed it among the leaves of a book with the flowers col- 
lected, and deemed it a circumstance worthy of particular 
notice. They looked thousands of feet down upon ice 
fields, upon innumerable lakes, upon the sources of rivers, 
and around and afar to mountains countless and sublime; 
but their stay was necessarily brief. From two o'clock to 
sunset was required to descend to the temporary camp where, 
in spite of the cold, they slept the sleep of the tired moun- 
taineer, than which no sleep is more grateful or refreshing. 
Before arriving at the main camp the fated barometer was 
again broken, this time beyond repair, but it had done its 
service. "We had climbed the loftiest peak of the Rocky 
mountains" exclaims Fremont, but he had not. Gannett 

' Hayden made it 13,790. — U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the 
Territories. 



Bonneville's Climb 87 

Peak about five miles to the northward is 13,785, and there- 
fore fifty-five feet higher than Fremont Peak; but farther 
south in Colorado, there are some twenty-nine peaks of the 
14,000-foot class." 

Mr. John Bigelow, not being a mountain climber him- 
self, in his most excellent Life of Colonel Fremont, ^ written 
as a campaign document in the Presidential contest of 1856, 
enthuses over this climb, which was really no very tremen- 
dous accomplishment, though one, under the conditions, 
worthy of commendation. Bigelow says : ' ' The great achieve- 
ment of this expedition, however, and one of the greatest 
ever accomplished by any traveller in any age, all the cir- 
cumstances considered, was the ascent of the Wind River 
Peak of the Rocky Mountains, the highest peak of that vast 
chain, and one which was probably never trod before by any 
mortal foot." Facts are facts and saying a thing is so does 
not necessarily close the argument. Bonneville was in this re- 
gion nine years before and he climbed a peak that he thought 
thehighestof the whole range, and when he stood upon the top, 

a scene burst upon the view of Captain Bonneville that for 
a time astonished and overwhelmed him with its immensity 
[writes Washington Irving]. Beneath him the Rocky Moun- 
tains seemed to open all their secret recesses; . . . He stood in 
fact, upon that dividing ridge which Indians regard as the crest 
of the world, ... he had attained that height from which the 
Blackfoot warrior, after death, first catches a view of the land of 
souls. . . . The peak commanded the whole of the Wind River 
chain. 

The description of the magnificent view is very much the 
same as Fremont's; and Bonneville, also, was of the opinion 

'August 7th, 1878, Mr. A. D. Wilson of the Hayden Survey, reached the 
summit of Fremont Peak. " We found no signs of anyone having visited this 
point before; but I am of the opinion that this is the point that Fremont 
ascended in 1842." 

' Memoir of the Life and Public Services of John Charles Fremont, by John 
Bigelow. New York, Derby and Jackson, 1856. 



88 Fremont and '49 

that this was the loftiest point on the North American con- 
tinent.' He found about the same difficulties and took 
about the same time, two days, to get to the summit from 
the north-east, that Fremont did from the south-west. 

It may have been Gannett Peak, or Mount Helen in 
between (13,600), which he climbed, or one of the other high 
points further south, but as Fremont Peak has a greater bulk 
than any of these and therefore would give the impression 
of being the most majestic and massive of all, it seems pos- 
sible that Bonneville in the early part of September, 1833, 
stood on Fremont Peak and therefore was perhaps the first 
to climb it. 

When Fremont reached his central camp after the ascent, 
he made immediate preparations for turning the direction 
of travel homeward in which every man rejoiced. He had 
glimpsed the wilderness beyond the second great barrier, 
from the splendid summit of the Wind River Range and he 
was prepared to confer again with the illustrious senator, and 
with the "circle" whose hearts were in the acquisition and 
settlement for the United States of this wonderful country, 
part of it held so loosely by Mexico and the other part 
gripped by the Hudson Bay Company for Great Britain. 

'■ See Washington Irving's Bonneville, chapter xxv. 







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CHAPTER V 



BACK HOME AND FORTH AGAIN 

The Episode of the Cross — Navigation under Difficulties — Rocks, Rapids, 
and Canyons of the Platte — Fort Laramie Again — A Bull-boat on a 
Sandy River — The Village of the Grand Pawnees — Cowbells and Bellevue 
— A Boat for the Missouri — Down the River to St. Louis — On to 
Washington — A Second Expedition Projected — At the Mouth of the 
Kansas — A Sudden Start — A Mystery. 

WHEN Bonneville descended from the great peak of 
the Wind River Range, which he estimated to be 
the highest of all, he came down on the eastern side 
whence he had started. Bonneville was at this time a 
trapper and fur-trader, not an officer of the army, and in 
the pursuit of his business he swung around the southern 
end of the Wind River Mountains, westward through South 
Pass, into Green River Valley, for many years before and 
after a favourite point of rendezvous for the fur-hunters. 
Thence he travelled up the Green to the head of the valley, 
and crossed over to Wind River. Thus he did, in 1833, what 
Fremont planned to do in 1842, but was not able to accom- 
plish on account of his lack of supplies, and generally un- 
favourable conditions. Game was very scarce; the spirits 
of the men were flagging; and all things considered Fremont 
concluded not to attempt going farther. Besides, the 
Crows and the Blackfeet, to the north, were dangerous. 
They always were, for that matter; that is to say, they were 
the tribes who most vigorously and successfully resented 
the encroachments of the whites, and Bonneville played 
hide and seek with a powerful force of Crows for some time, 

89 



90 Fremont and '49 

but by constant vigilance, their designs were thwarted, and 
he circumtoured the Wind River Range reaching Green River 
Valley once more, where he came upon a large band of 
Shoshones, or Utes, with whom, on friendly terms, were 
encamped Fitzpatrick and his men. 

Fitzpatrick had parted with Bonneville on the Bighorn 
River some time before and now related his experiences 
with a strong company of Crow warriors. They succeeded 
in throwing the wily Fitzpatrick off his guard, and while 
he was calling by invitation on the chief, a contingent sacked 
his camp, capturing all his horses. ^ Not only that, but they 
robbed Fitzpatrick himself on his way back. Yet such was 
the extraordinary coolness and dominating power of his per- 
sonality, that he induced the chief by mere eloquence to 
cause all his horses to be restored, all his rifles likewise, and 
a portion of the ammunition for each of his men. A few 
of the horses were again taken by some of the unruly as he 
was leaving the region, but neither he nor any of his men 
suffered harm. It is not strange, therefore, that his presence 
should have served to extricate the party of emigrants, de- 
scribed above, from the Utes, many of whom were his friends 
and with whom he had often, more or less, affiliated. 

Fremont, retracing his outward line of march, left his 
camp on the Little Sandy and in three hours was in the pass 
"where the waggon road crosses." In 1812, as previously 
noted, Robert Stuart came practically to this point before he 
swung to the south-east, and then to the east. Fremont led 
his party immediately down to the river where he stopped 
and took "a meridian observation of the sun " which gave his 
latitude as 42° 24' 32". Continuing eastward along the 
Oregon Trail, over which they had come out, they arrived on 
August 22d at Independence Rock, where more astronomi- 
cal observations were taken, and where this active young 

' It must not be forgotten that the rival fur companies induced the Indians 
to obstruct the operations of rivals, and their obstructing often went to the 
limit of scalping, with the tacit approval of the white abettors. 



w^ 




Chief Running Deer, a Crow 

The Crows were deliant at the time of Fr6niont's operations 
Photograph by F. Jay Haynes 



The Sign of the Cross 91 

officer in a burst of enthusiasm for exploration, and emula- 
tion of early predecessors, performed, all unknowingly, one 
of the eventful acts of his life — a trivial act that was to be 
used to his disadvantage. He says: 

Here, not unmindful of the custom of early travellers and ex- 
plorers in our country, I engraved on this rock of the Far West 
a symbol of the Christian faith. Among the thickly inscribed 
names, I made on the hard granite the impression of a large 
cross, which I covered with a black preparation of India-rubber, 
well calculated to resist the influence of wind and rain. It stands 
amidst the names of many who have long since found their way 
to the grave, and for whom the huge rock is a giant gravestone. 

Could he have foreseen the trouble in store for him because 
of this simple, reverential deed, he wotdd have shunned the 
rock and the cross as things of evil. And it was called 
Independence Rock, emblem of liberty! But this was only 
another of those luckless doings of Fremont which his 
adversaries in later years magnified into crimes. For this 
heinous cross offence he was charged with being a Catholic, 
and, in his Presidential campaign of 1856, the circumstance 
was flaunted violently against him. Dear old Nicollet was 
a Catholic and Fremont had many friends in this creed, 
so from that standpoint the cross w^ould have meant nothing 
unusual to him. Besides his father was one; but he him- 
self was an Episcopalian, following his mother in sectarian 
matters. It seems quite clear that in putting the cross on 
this rock he had not the slightest thought of sectarianism. 

At this point, as his orders were to survey the Platte, 
he decided to begin, and take to the Sweetwater in his 
rubber boat, which was therefore inflated, provisioned, and 
launched on the stream, manned by Preuss and several 
others, as well as by Fremont. The Sweetwater is not a 
large river at any time and now it was at its minimum 
because of the long drought. After dragging the boat a 
mile or two over the sands the attempt was seen to be futile 



92 Fremont and '49 

and the boat was packed up, and they went on their way with 
the pack-train. Arriving at the Platte, chances for naviga- 
tion on real water appeared better, so another start was made 
with ten days' provisions and five of the best men, and 
Preuss the topographer. Carson is not mentioned in this 
connection, perhaps because his remarks on the undertak- 
ing might not bear printing.^ There seemed to be enough 
water for the rubber boat which was "light as a duck, " and, 
as they proceeded, everything was favourable until they 
heard ahead a roar when they approached a canyon through 
which the river made its passage of some mountains. The 
stream took a sudden turn "and swept squarely down 
against one of the walls of the canyon, with great velocity, 
and so steep a descent that it had to the eye the appearance 
of an inclined plane." A fall of twenty or more feet had 
been described to Fremont, and they were on the lookout 
for a sheer drop; but the fall meant was the general fall of 
the river at this place — a heavy rapid. Fitzpatrick had 
told of being wrecked in this canyon eighteen years before 
when trying to descend with a cargo of furs. Evidently 
Fremont was unacquainted with the action and velocity of 
these streams when "canyoned, " for he seems rather to have 
expected to find the sudden fall arranged with a convenient 
landing by which he could make an easy portage and then go 
smoothly on. But that is not the way the waters of these 
rivers come down; they descend at times with a rush, and 
a dash and a tumble, scattered along over a considerable 
distance, and to avoid disaster one must be on the watch 
every instant. 

Though appreciating the changed order of things, he 
was aware that it would be a great task from where he was 

' Burdett in his Life of Carson (p. 175) suggests that Carson had no very- 
high opinion of the courage or good sense of Fremont's voyageurs, and that 
this was the real reason why he made his will at Fort Laramie before coming 
farther, feeling that strange things might happen. The Fremont followers 
were certainly a highly nervous lot. _ 



Swift Water 93 

to get out with their cargo over the cliffs and he decided to 
continue, bad as tlie outlook was, down the river and run 
the canyon. The water swept through with great violence; 
the boat was nearly swamped; but after running three 
lively rapids with about a hundred feet of water interven- 
ing between them, they came safely out, and breakfasted 
on the right bank, having been at work since daylight; and 
it was now eight. In another hour the voyageurs were on 
the tide once more, and quickly entered the next canyon of 
the series: "a narrow, dark, chasm in the rock, 300 feet deep 
at the entrance."' They removed most of their clothing 
and made everything fast. Preuss took the chronometer 
and tried to walk along the shore with it. Very soon there 
was no shore. He was then taken in the boat, which was 
lowered carefully, by means of a fifty foot rope. At length 
they arrived at a place that is by no means uncommon in 
canyons of this kind. 

To go back was impossible; before us, the cataract was a 
sheet of foam; and shut up in the chasm by the rocks, which, 
in some places, seemed almost to meet overhead, the roar of the 
water was deafening. We pushed off again ; but, after making 
a little distance, the force of the current became too great for 
the men on shore, and two of them let go the rope. Lajeunesse, 
the third man, hung on, and was jerked headforemost into the 
river from a rock about twelve feet high; and do^^^l the boat 
shot like an arrow, Basil following us in the rapid current, and 
exerting all his strength to keep in mid channel — his head only 
seen occasionally like a black spot in the white foam. 

Lajeunesse was a good swimmer and when the boat 
was turned into an eddy some distance down, to wait for 
him, he soon arrived, declaring he had swum half a mile. 
All now got on the boat and with short paddles for guidance, 

» Canyons are often spoken of as " dark," but it is only the darkness of the 
shady side of a street. I have never seen a really dark canyon in the daytime, 
and I have been in hundreds of them, some very narrow and of great depth. 



94 Fremont and '49 

they dashed on. These men must have been skilful boat- 
men otherwise they would have been wrecked at once, but 
so successful were they that a Canadian boat song burst 
from them as they flew swiftly down amidst the rocks ; now 
here, now there. Alas! it was misplaced confidence. Their 
song, or shout, was broken by sudden and violent contact 
with a rock. The boat went over. Some of the men could 
not swim, but, luckily all were presently out on the rocks, 
while whirling on and on floated the books, boxes, bales, 
blankets, and the instrument boxes with their valuable 
freight. The records of the expedition were adrift and 
vanishing. Quick action was necessary to save them, as 
well as the other valuables. 

Fortunately, there was now a footing on the sides, and 
the men went down the left, while Lajeunesse, with a paddle, 
managed to jump on the boat alone and guide her down. 
All of the registers were recovered except one of Fremont's 
journals which contained important records, though for- 
timately many of these were duplicated in the books saved. 
Almost everything else was lost, and of course all the food. 

The main party, by direction of the leader, had gone on 
to the place named Goat Island on the outward march, and 
no help was possible from them. They were to wait there 
if Fremont left no mark in passing. The day was nearing 
its end, the boat party had no supplies, their arms and am- 
munition were gone, and the situation was not entirely a 
pleasant one. It might have been avoided by a preliminary 
examination or by exploring the river by following its banks 
on foot through the canyons, but the more iincertain course, 
with the boat was chosen. They climbed out of the canyon 
in two parties on opposite sides of the river, Preuss and 
Fremont on one side and the men on the other, and made 
their way towards the main camp. ^ Fremont had only one 

' These canyons appear to be the same which Robert Stuart in October, 
1812, described as the Fiery Narrows, on his, the first trip by a white man 
through this locality. 



Wheels Again 95 

moccasin. Walking over rough ground in moccasins, unless 
they be the rawhide-soled variety (and even then there are 
painful moments, when stones are sharp), is not easy, or at 
least not comfortable, and with one foot bare, the fragments 
of rock and the thorns of cacti made the tramp a memorable 
one for Fremont. Yet they stopped frequently to admire the 
scenery; Fremont had a sensitive, artistic nature united 
to his bold nerve and courage. Crossing and recrossing 
the river, sometimes swimming, sometimes fording, climb- 
ing over the ridges, they arrived near evening in the cut 
which was named Hot Spring Gate, and which on the out- 
ward journey had been left for exploration on the return. 
Preuss and Fremont were together, the rest of the party 
having gone by another route, except Benoist, who recently 
joined them. Preuss saw a fine clear spring gushing from a 
rock, and took a hasty drink to find that the water was 
hot. There were eight or ten of these hot springs in this 
canyon. The whole party was presently united at the 
Goat Island camp where a heavy storm of rain fell upon 
them; but nevertheless Fremont says he slept soundly, 
"after one of the most fatiguing days" he had ever experi- 
enced. Nothing is more wearing perhaps than working a 
boat through waters such as he had passed, as there is, in 
addition to the muscular tax, a considerable amount of 
nerve strain. 

The next morning, August 25th, Lajeunesse, Fremont's 
great favourite, and evidently a fine boatman, from whom he 
doubtless took advice as to running the canyons, rather than 
from Kit Carson, was sent to the scene of the wreck to 
secure the articles which had been saved, and by mid-day 
they were all on the march. The next morning early they 
arrived at the place where the carts had been hidden. These 
were soon assembled again enabling the expedition to go 
forward once more on wheels. If a road is at all good a 
horse can pull much more than can be packed on his back, 
but packing in a new region has the advantage of not Limit- 



96 Fremont and '49 

ing the traveller to a road, or even to a trail. I have helped 
in taking a pack-train up an almost perpendicular sandstone 
cliff 1500 feet high, where no man or mule had ever gone 
before, where trees had to be felled, rocks picked away, and 
mules "boosted" from behind by two men, to succeed, which 
is proof of the mobility of the pack-mule, if any were neces- 
sary. In the case of Fremont's caravan now, the road was 
known, it was comparatively simple and smooth, and it was 
a decided advantage to be rid of the labour of slinging the 
packs several times a day. The carts rolled along steadily over 
the waggon trail and on the last day of August, 1842, the party 
drove into Fort Laramie after an absence of forty-two days. 
The fort saluted with numerous discharges of its single cannon, 
to which the small arms of the explorers joyfully responded. 
Fremont had been in no new country ; it is even doubtful 
if he was first on the peak since named for him, but he had 
gathered a large amount of accurate information, which 
had not been before observed, and he was ready to present 
it to the American people. So intelligent was it that it is 
referred to as authority to this day. 

As they proceeded eastward down the North Platte they 
were able to cross and recross at pleasure, for the drought 
by this time had reduced the river to a few shallow rivulets 
meandering upon a vast desert of sand. This was the route 
followed outward by the larger party, Fremont himself 
having come around by St. Vrain's Fort. He passed, 
therefore, for the first time the noted Chimney Rock, a 
landmark described to him by Preuss. "It consists," said 
Preuss, "of marl and earthy limestone, and the weather 
is rapidly diminishing its height, which is not more than 200 
feet above the river. Travellers who visited it some years 
since placed its height at upwards of 500 feet." The loca- 
tion is near the present town of Bayard, Nebraska. In 
1869, Dr. F. V. Hayden described it as shooting "up its 
tall white spire from 100 to 150 feet." It was the work 
of erosion. The weather now was delightful, food and water 



Grand Island Again 97 

were plentiful, and the whole party were in fine spirits 
feeling that at last they had left behind the dread land of 
darkness. They even developed a desire to make a friendly 
call on a Sioux village, some of whose chiefs had been among 
those met at Fort Laramie. How different the sensations 
now, looking back, from those of not so very long before when 
there was gloom ahead. At the junction of the South 
Platte the barrel of pork was dug from its hiding place in 
the ground, and it was a "seasonable" addition to the 
food supply. 

Fremont was tenacious. He had conceived the idea of 
descending the Platte in a boat, and he resolved to try it 
again at this point. He had no boat and there was no 
wood for one here, but he knew a way, or Carson did. A 
number of buffalo bulls were killed, and four of the best 
skins were sewed together with buffalo sinew, stretched 
over a basket frame of willow, the seams smeared with a 
mixture of ashes and tallow, and the whole left in the hot 
sun for nearly a day. The skins drying in the sun drew 
themselves taut all over the willow frame and there was the 
boat — a bull-boat as such vessels were styled by the trappers. 
It was eight feet long, five wide with a round bow; and only 
drew, with four men aboard, about four inches. With great 
hopes of success in spite of the low water, Fremont, Preuss, 
and two of the men manned the craft, but they did not dash 
down with a raging torrent ; on the contrary, they dragged 
and pulled, and pulled and dragged, their prairie ship 
laboriously over the broad waste of sands where a river 
should have been. Then they abandoned her on a lonely 
bar, completely convinced of the hopelessness of navigating 
this flat expanse of tiny rills. On September i8th. Grand 
Island was reached; and going on down the river on the 
22d the village of the Grand Pawnees, near the present 
town of Central City, Nebraska, a landmark of the region, 
where some green vegetables were obtained. These Indians 
were in the midst of harvesting. 



98 Fremont and '49 

And here, lest the reader may conclude from the talk 
at Fort Laramie that the Indian was always a desperate, 
bloodthirsty character, and that the white man is the only 
saintly being on earth, I am moved to insert the Indian 
creed of George Catlin, the famous painter of Indians, 
announced after he had spent eight years, following 1832, 
among the tribes of the Missouri and the Rocky Moun- 
tains : 

I love the people who have always made me welcome with the 
best they had. Hove a people who are honest without laws, who 
have no jails and no poor houses. I love a people who keep the 
Commandments without ever having read them or heard them 
preached from the pulpit. I love a people who never swear, who 
never take the name of God in vain. I love a people who love 
their neighbours as they love themselves. I love a people who 
worship God without a Bible, for I believe that God loves them 
also. I love the people whose religion is all the same, and who are 
free from religious animosities. I love a people who have never 
raised a hand against me, or stolen my property, where there 
was no law to punish for either. I love the people who never 
have fought a battle with white men except on their own ground. 
I love and don't fear mankind where God has made and left them, 
for they are children. I love a people who live and keep what is 
their own without locks or keys. I love all people who do the 
best they can, and oh! how I love a people who don't live for the 
love of money. ' 

As to the safety of property among Indians — at least 
among some Indians — the living without locks, I can agree 
with Mr. Catlin. On one occasion I sojourned alone for 
about five weeks (in 1884) with the Moki of Arizona on the 
East Mesa, in the village of Hano (Tewa). I never locked 
my door at night, nor when I went off, even for a whole day^ 
partly because I was sure nothing would be disturbed, and 
partly because there was no lock! I could cite numerous 

' Last Rambles amongst the Indians, etc., George Catlin, London, 1868, 




Chief Yellow-Dog, a Blackfoot 

The Hl..ckfoot tribe was the m„st .langcr.a.s ,n .he northern country. The Crows came next. 

In the south the Ap.ichcs and the Comanchcs were correspondingly fierce 

Photograph by F. Jay llaynes 



Indians at Home 99 

other instances of trust in the' natives of the Far West that 
was justified in full. Charles Eastman, himself a Sioux, 
says: 

The native American has been generally despised by his white 
conquerors for his poverty and simplicity. They forget, perhaps, 
that his religion forbade the accumulation of wealth and the 
enjoyment of luxury. To him, as to other single minded men in 
every age and race, from Diogenes to the brothers of Saint 
Francis, from the Montanists to the Shakers, the love of posses- 
sions has appeared a snare, and the burdens of a complex society 
a source of needless peril and temptation. Furthermore, it was 
the rule of his Hfe to share the fruits of his skill and success with 
his less fortunate brothers.^ 

We may, in a scientific analysis, hold that this generous 
sharing of property was merely a necessity in the stage of 
development in which these primitive people foimd them- 
selves, yet their laws of hospitality and of brotherhood were 
a fact. No member of a tribe ever dropped dead of starva- 
tion when the other members were enjoying plenty, but in 
the large cities of "civilization" death from starvation and 
exposure are not uncommon, which seems, at least, to indi- 
cate that our own development is not complete. Further- 
more a hungry man, even a stranger, was welcome to food, 
among the Indians. 

In the preface to a charming little book,^ Francis La 
Flesche has this to say, and it is worth quoting in this con- 
nection : 

The white people speak of the country at this period [Lewis 
and Clark] as a "wilderness," as though it was an empty tract with- 
out human interest or history. To us Indians it was as clearly 

' The Soul of the Indian, by Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa), New 
York, 191 1. Dr. Eastman writes from the standpoint of his own tribe, the 
Sioux. 

' The Middle Five. Indian Boys at School, by Francis La Flesche. Boston, 
1900. Mr. La Flesche belongs to the Siouan stock. 



100 Fremont and *49 

defined then as it is to-day; we knew the boundaries of tribal 
lands, those of our friends and those of our foes ; we were famihar 
with every stream, the contour of every hill, and each peculiar 
feature of the landscape had its tradition. 

In short, the Far West was occupied by a people who were 
intelligent, with a love of home and family qmte as strong 
as the similar traits in white men, and they combated the 
intrusion of the Europeans who rode, roughshod, with no 
"by your leave, " over everything, killing the game and even 
the people, destroying the grass and doing other, from the 
Indian point of view, incalculable and unwarranted damage. 
The Indian always had a strong love for his children, and 
injury to them, or to his family in any way, was invariably 
fiercely resented. 

The Pawnees, from whom Fremont purchased the supply 
of vegetables, belonged to a large confederacy of the Cad- 
doan family whose country extended in this region across 
the valley of the Platte, and along it east and west, the main 
body of the Caddoans being south in Texas and Louisiana. 
They were not at this time antagonistic to the whites, and 
many of them served as scouts for the United States Army in 
later movements against hostile tribes. They were eventu- 
ally destroyed by contact with the diseases of civilisation, 
only a few hundred now remaining. 

On the morning of September 24th, as the expedition 
proceeded eastward down the Platte, the Loup fork coming 
in from the north was reached, a fine stream with a swift 
current of clear water; not muddy and yellow, like the 
Platte. It was deep, too, and the ford was difficult, requir- 
ing repeated attempts to secure a satisfactory crossing. 
Camp was made on the left bank of the fork, at the junction, 
and here the party stopped two days for those astronomical 
observations, about which Fremont was more active and 
conscientious than any other explorer of whom I know. He 
obtained 41° 22' 11'' for the latitude of the mouth, which 



On the Missouri loi 

appears to be very nearly correct. It was Fremont's in- 
tention to go to the Missouri River at the mouth of the 
Platte and by water descend to St. Louis from here. He 
had some days before sent in advance to Bellevue, a 
short distance above the mouth of the Platte, C. Lambert 
and two men to secure the construction of a boat by 
the carpenters of the American Fur Company's estab- 
lishment, at that place, which was in charge of Mr. 
Peter A. Sarpy. On the 27th of September as the cara- 
van was marching, they met one of the men returning 
with a supply of provisions from Mr. Sarpy and a note in- 
forming Fremont that the desired boat was under process 
of construction. Making his usual carefiil and detailed 
notes of the country as he went along, Fremont kept steadily 
on, and waking before daylight on the morning of the first 
day of October he was gratified and pleased to hear that 
inevitable indication of rural comfort and prosperity, the 
sound of cow-bells, at settlements across the Missouri, on 
whose banks he had arrived. Only when one has been 
long separated from a milk and butter diet can he appreciate 
completely the music of a cow-bell drifting across green 
meadows. A short journey brought the expedition to the 
house of Mr. Sarpy and here the tribulations of the land 
journey ended; the "wilderness" was behind, for a time, and 
Fremont enjoyed the relief of "being again within the pale 
of civilisation." Bellevue was a very old location on the 
Missouri, and at the time of Fremont's visit the American 
Fur Company had a fort there built some time since 1830. 

The boat was so far along that a few days were sufficient 
to complete her, and as all the horses, etc., had been sold at 
auction at Bellevue, there was not much to encumber the 
craft, which was manned with ten oars, to be relieved every 
hour. On the 4th of October they started on the current 
of the river and continued with rapidity, arriving at the 
mouth of the Kansas, Westport Landing then, on the loth, 
exactly four months since leaving the post of Cyprian Chou- 



102 Fremont and '49 

teau, ten miles up that river. The Missouri, from the point 
of embarkation at Bellevue, to the city of St. Louis, was 
surveyed and sketched in, with astronomical observations 
taken at night and at midday when weather permitted, and 
on the 17th of October the metropolis of the West, St. 
Louis, was achieved. Here the remaining effects were sold, 
and Fremont took passage on a steamboat, the next day, 
for the East, reaching Washington in eleven days. 

In his memoirs he says nothing about the joy of his bride 
at his safe return, but merely states, with almost too great 
reticence, that he found his family well, and then goes on to 
tell of the preparation of his report on the first expedition, 
the fortunes of which have been followed in the preceding 
pages. Not only was a general map of the region explored 
prepared by Mr. Preuss, but a series of maps to show each 
day's journey, "a guide book in atlas form" for the use of 
emigrants which was suggested by Senator Benton, the 
constant, unflagging, friend of the West and the Westerner. 

Many plants had been collected and these were turned 
over to Professor Torrey for classification, while Fremont 
wrote out his report to Congress. In this task he was as- 
sisted by his wife, to whom he dictated. The report was 
received "with very great interest, for it was the first of its 
kind — the first to go so deeply and thoroughly and frankly, 
into every detail of exploration. On motion of Senator 
Linn it was printed and a number of extra copies ordered. 
Linn stated: "All the objects of the expedition have been 
accomplished. . . . He climbed the loftiest peak of the Rocky 
Mountains, until then untrodden by any known human 
being." This shows how little was known of Bonneville's 
movements by even the "circle " which took so great a degree 
of interest in the exploration of the Far West. Linn went 
on to say that the report proved that the country for several 
hundred miles from the frontier of Missouri "is exceedingly 
beautiful and fertile," and when we recall that some pre- 
vious explorers had denominated the self-same region a 



A Second Expedition 103 

desert that would serve as a barrier for all time, the value 
of Fremont's clear, sensible, descriptions is understood. 
Whatever else he may or may not have done, he came pretty 
near to a scientific statement of facts, as he saw them. 

This expedition was the first act planned by the "circle" 
in aid of Western emigration. Apparently it was a work 
of the government, but in reality it was originated and 
instigated by this coterie, determined to know all about 
the West, and determined to push ahead the emigration to the 
Pacific, their only reason for more or less secrecy being the 
opposition of the Government. In pursuance, then, of this 
determination to secure the great West for the United States 
what happened next is exactly w^hat should be expected; 
another and more extensive expedition was projected, and 
at the same time the senators from Missouri opposed all 
and every attempt on the part of Great Britain to com- 
promise and delay. They believed Oregon as far as the 
49th parallel was ours and they worked to preserve our 
rights. Linn introduced a bill to encourage and protect 
emigrants to Oregon by a line of forts, and also providing 
grants of land. This bill was passed in the Senate but 
not in the House, though nevertheless, Fremont was of 
the opinion that it encouraged emigrants to believe the 
government meant to protect them; encouraged them to 
cross to the new land. 

The second Fremont expedition was to connect with the 
first one at South Pass, though it was to approach that point 
by a different route. Beyond, it was to examine the region 
south of the Columbia, in such a manner that, together with 
the first expedition and with the work of Captain Wilkes, it 
would be able to present a "connected survey of the interior 
and western half of the continent." Accordingly in the early 
spring of 1843 Fremont left Washington by stage-coach to 
execute the plans, having with him his wife and the whole 
Benton family, on their way to the Benton residence in 
St. Louis. While crossing the Pennsylvania mountains the 



I04 Fremont and '49 

coach was capsized, and Mrs. Benton was stunned by a cut 
on the head, from which she recovered after a rest of a day 
at an old-fashioned tavern nearby, where the party was so 
well fed and housed that both Fremont, and Preuss, who 
was with him, recalled the circumstances many times in the 
strenuous days that followed. The stay in St. Louis was 
not prolonged. Fremont knew just what he wanted to do 
in the way of preparation, and he did it efficiently. In a 
short time everything was ready for the proposed eight 
months' travel beyond the Rocky Mountains, during which 
time Mrs. Fremont was to stay at the Benton homestead 
and open all letters that came for her husband, using her 
discretion as to forwarding any while he still remained within 
reach, which led to a decisive and important action on her 
part. 

Colonel S. W. Kearny, U. S. A., was in command of the 
military division in which St. Louis was situated, and the 
young explorer applied to him for a 12 -pound howitzer to be 
taken along, as he "expected to be much among Indians 
who had for many years a known character for audacious 
bravery and treachery." Colonel Kearny, afterwards fated 
to be so antagonistically associated as superior officer with 
Fremont, complied with the request and the howitzer was 
furnished, together with other arms, from the St. Louis 
arsenal. 

Fremont here secured the services of six of the voyageurs 
who had been with him on the first expedition, among them 
his favourite Basil Lajeunesse, and one Louis Zindel, a 
Prussian artillerist who had been with the second Nicollet 
expedition, and who probably was responsible for the 
howitzer matter. Ashley had taken a similar gun with him 
in 1824, clear through to Utah Lake, then called Ashley 
Lake, but I have never heard that it was of any particular 
service. For a guide, one of the very best men possible 
was engaged, no less than Thomas Fitzpatrick, of whom 
something has been said in this chapter. He was still a man 



A Quick Start 105 

far from old but his hair was white, due, relates Fremont, 
to an encounter with the Blackfoot Indians of the Wind 
River Range, when all of his party but him had been killed, 
and he had been hunted for three days, before escaping. 
Kit Carson was to join the expedition later. On May 17th 
Fremont arrived at what is now Kansas City, and while 
engaged there in putting the finishing touches on the ac- 
coutrements of the party, he received a letter from his 
wife urging him immediately to set forth. Consequently 
on the morning of May 29th, only twelve days after reaching 
the place, he started without knowing the reason for the 
sudden move, but having such confidence in his wife, the 
daughter be it remembered of Senator Benton, that he did 
not halt to inquire. 





CHAPTER VI 

FROM KANSAS CITY TO GREEN RIVER VALLEY 

A Troublesome Cannon — Mutiny of Mrs. Fremont and Others — Benton 
Demands a Court-martial — Outfit of the Second Expedition — The Re- 
markable William Gilpin — Across Kansas and Nebraska — St. Vrain's 
Fort Again — Beginning of Pueblo, Colorado — Kit Carson Comes — The 
Fontaine qui Bouit — Up the Cache a la Poudre River — Assault by Ara- 
pahos and Cheyennes — The Oregon Trail to Green River Valley. 

WHILE Lieutenant Fremont is hastening westward, 
from the frontier settlements, on the sudden 
admonition of his wife, it is in order to inquire 
the cause of this pecuHar action. Although he did not 
exactly know why he was instructed to move so speedily 
on his way, he seems to have been apprehensive of some 
adverse order to prevent the execution of the idea of extend- 
ing this exploration into disputed territory, or into forbid- 
den foreign territory, for it was understood that President 
Tyler and his advisers were not much in favour of an expedi- 
tion in that direction at this time. Like the first expedition, 
the order for it had been issued through the influence, in 
a roundabout way, of the "circle," and the Administration 
knew little concerning it. Hence Fremont's celerity in 
acting on his wife's exhortation. He knew that she fully 
understood all phases of the situation and it was best not to 
hesitate when she said go. Young though she was she seems 
to have possessed a remarkable maturity of thought and 
action. 

The immediate inspiration of the order to return was 
the discovery by the powers at Washington that Fremont 

1 06 




Y^^^a^/ 




Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri 

1782-1858. Fathcr-in-law of Fremont, nnd Si'iiatnr f..r thirty ye.irs, a man of high ideals. 

clear judgment, and independent thoucht 

From an engraving from a painting by Chappell. Engraving published in iS6a 



Benton's Vacation Council 107 

had added a twelvc-poundcr howitzer to his armament. 
In their opinion this gave the expedition the air of a miHtary 
reconnaissance, and considering the delicate balance of 
affairs with Great Britain as well as with Mexico, an extra 
well-armed party of considerable size, moving into debatable 
territory, on the one hand, and forbidden territory on the 
other, had a warlike aspect which diplomatically was un- 
desirable. While a twelve-pounder could not make an army 
it gave an army character to what had been authorised as 
purely scientific. From at least two points of view, therefore, 
the cannon was hazardous; and the order for Fremont's 
return to explain appears to have been merely precautionary. 
Besides, the belief that a cannon was of great use in fighting 
Indians in the field, though held for a time by General Ashley, 
as noted, and also on one expedition by Smith, Sublette, 
and Jackson a good many years before Fremont's activities, 
had been abandoned by the frontiersmen. It is interesting 
to note that the expedition on which Jedediah Smith and 
his partners took the cannon was the last trip of his life. 
He was shot by Comanches, far from the cannon or any other 
assistance. Mrs. Fremont was very young, but she had 
decision, like her illustrious father, and she well knew the 
attitude of mind of that father and his close friends in St. 
Louis and in Washington, who made up the "circle" to 
which I have referred. 

It is pertinent here to quote what she had to say, in 
later years, on this subject. First it may be premised that 
the Benton home in St. Louis was a centre for the congre- 
gation of men like General William Clark, Ramsa^'- Crooks, 
who also at one time brought Washington Irving, the 
"many Chouteaus, " pioneer priests, French voyageurs, and 
"wealthy citizens, Spanish, French, and American," inter- 
ested in the Western trade. "Year after year," says Mrs. 
Fremont, " this small but forceful council met with my father 
in the vacations of Congress, and he carried up to their 
friends in Washington the knowledge gained among them as 



io8 Fremont and '49 

an impelling force towards our more energetic occupation of 
Oregon."' In the winter of 1842-3, Mrs. Fremont acted, 
as before noted, as her husband's secretary, and "had full 
knowledge of the large scope and national importance of 
these journeys — a knowledge as yet strictly confined to the 
few carrying out their aim, " that is to say, these "few" were 
the "circle" referred to by Fremont, a term I have chosen 
by which to designate the group specially interested in pro- 
moting our claims and welfare in the Far West. Mrs. 
Fremont continues: 

I was to open mail and forward to the camp at Kaw Landing, 
now Kansas City, all that in my judgment required Mr. Fremont's 
attention. One day there came for him an official letter from his 
Colonel, the chief of the Topographical Bureau: it was an order 
recalling him to Washington, whither he was directed to return 
and explain why he had armed his party with a howitzer : saying 
that it was a scientific, not a military, expedition, and should not 
have been so armed. I saw at once that this would make delays 
which would involve the overthrow of great plans, and I felt 
there was a hidden hand at work. Fortunately my father was 
absent from St. Louis, and I could act on my instinct. Without 
telling any one of the order, I put it away and hurried off a mes- 
senger to Mr. Fremont — one of his men, Basil Lajeunesse, who 
was to join him with the last things. I feared a duplicate letter 
might have been sent to the frontier. ... I charged Basil to 
make all haste, for much depended on that letter. I wrote 
Mr. Fremont that he must not ask why, but must start at once, 
ready or not ready. The animals could rest and fatten at Bent's 
Fort. Only go. There was a reason but he could not know it; 
my father would take care of everything. And as we acted 
together unquestioningly, he did go immediately. Not until I 
received the good-bye letter did I write in answer to his Colonel. 
. . . Then I wrote him exactly what I had done.^ 



^ Century Magazine, vol. xix., N. S., p. 767. 

2 " The Origin of the Fremont Explorations," by Jessie Benton Frdmont, 
Century Magazine, vol. xix., New Series, 1890-91, p. 768. 



Senator Benton Approves 109 

She stated to Colonel Abert that the howitzer was 
necessary, etc. She says further: 

I had so grown into my father's purpose that now, when my 
husband could be of such large aid to its accomplishment, I had 
no hesitation in risking for him all consequences. Upon this 
second expedition hinged great results. It made California 
known in a way which roused and enlisted our people, and led 
directly to its being acquired during the third expedition . . . 
and this time there were no foes "in the rear." 

Senator Benton remarks of this incident : 

"She [Mrs. Fremont] read the countermanding orders, and 
detained them, and Fremont knew nothing of their existence 
until after he had returned from one of the most marvellous and 
eventful expeditions of modem times — one to which the United 
States are indebted (among other things) for the present owner- 
ship of California instead of seeing it a British possession. 
The writer of this View who was then in St. Louis approved of 
the course which his daughter had taken (for she had stopped the 
order before he knew it) and he wrote a letter to the depart- 
ment condemning the recall, repiilsing the reprimand which had 
been lavished upon Fremont, and demanding a court martial for 
him when he should return,^ 

The Senator ascribed this counter move, or order, to the 
jealousy of the West Point men, who, he says, sought an 
easy life, and who felt Fremont's activity as a reproach. 
But the history of West Pointers does not warrant such an 
inference. Fremont himself characterised this recall as 
"a. flimsy excuse for breaking up the expedition," and says 
it was apparent to Mrs. Fremont, "as was also the true 
reason for it," though he does not define this true reason, 
except to state that it was "compliance of the administra- 

' Thirty Years' View, vol. ii., p. 579. Of the government oflficials Benton 
further remarks that they were " innocent of the conception of the first expedi- 
tion, equally innocent of the second, though not equally passive in the latter 
case, countermanding it and lavishing censure upon the young explorer." 



no Fremont and '49 

tion with the Enghsh situation in Oregon.'" The sup- 
pression of the order was nothing less than mutiny on 
the part of Mrs. Fremont, of Fremont himself, who must 
have, indirectly, at least, suggested beforehand so reckless 
a proceeding, and of Senator Benton, who approved. It 
indicated that Fremont had little of the regulation training 
of a West Point man, in short that he was as yet hardly a 
soldier in the sense of being a disciplinarian; if he had been, 
his wife would not even have thought of thwarting orders 
from headquarters. It showed, also, that there were plans 
long on foot concerning the acquisition of California Alta, 
that were firm, independent, broad, and deep, and this 
should be remembered in estimating the action of Fremont 
in certain much-discussed future events; and Fremont 
knew all these plans, knew what was expected of him in 
certain contingencies, and knew he had the support of some 
of the most influential men of the day in Washington. 

However commendable in itself this Benton mutiny may 
have been (and it has its good side) , and however fertile in 
future benefit, if it was so fertile as the Senator believed, it 
was personally, it seems to me, an unfortunate move for 
Fremont; it placed him in a worse light than ever in the 
eyes of the regular army officers, and gave some colour to 
the accusation that he was no soldier, that he was an officer 
only by favouritism. This action of his wife, therefore, 
instead of aiding him in his career, perhaps was a detriment in 
the future, when other antagonisms developed. Had he 
obeyed the order, there probably would have been a few 
weeks' delay of no special consequence, the cannon could 
have been abandoned (it was of no service and proved more 
or less of a burden — the same weight in dried beans would 
have been far more important), and the expedition could 

' In a biographical sketch of Mrs. Fremont she is quoted thus regarding 
this order: "This I felt would break up my father's and Mr. Fremont's real 
plans, which were to hold the Bay of San Francisco against the English. " 
The "real" plans, it would seem, were not often divulged. 



Fremont's Purpose iii 

have gone out lacking the blemish of insubordination. 
On the other hand, if it was to be abandoned altogether, 
it was the Government's business, not Fremont's. Inci- 
dentally Fremont might have given a little time to examining 
Albert Gallatin's map and to ascertaining what Captain 
Bonneville had been doing ten years earlier in the country 
where he was going, and he would have learned something 
about the mystical Buenaventura River that might have 
prevented loss of time and days of starvation and exposure. 
The great Senator and his colleagues were wise men, 
patriotic men, powerful in public affairs ; in many things in 
which they opposed the Administration they were probably 
right ; their ideals were just and high ; — but after all they were 
not the whole Government and this particular affair was not 
in accordance with proper, orderly procedure. And was it 
not a mistake to instil into the young lieutenant of engineers 
and his charming wife the feeling that the regularly elected 
or appointed officers of the Government could be ignored with 
impunity ? Once off, however, Fremont proceeded to execute 
the original orders given him, nominally by Colonel Abert, 
Chief of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, but in reality 
inspired by the circle; indeed, in a roundabout way, merely 
the wishes of Senator Benton and himself expressed through 
the army. On the surface he was to connect his 1842 
survey with the Columbia River region and with the work 
of Commander Wilkes of the navy who had directed explora- 
tory operations in 1841 in that region and in California Alta. 
This was the bald order; behind it was his special under- 
standing with the circle, which appears to have been that he 
was to use his judgment and find out all he coidd about 
conditions, not only in Oregon, but in California Alta, and 
act to the best interests of the United States, as far as he was 
able. Senator Benton rightly desired to get first-hand 
knowledge of these conditions, and for a very proper and 
worthy purpose : to instruct the people and to guard against 
any possible weakness or ignorance of the Administration, 



112 Fremont and '49 

in dealing with great questions rapidly coming to the front ; 
questions which the far-reaching mind of this admirable 
American statesman saw written large across the face of the 
Far West. He intended to anchor California Alta and set 
the sails of Oregon in our direction. 

The party, like the one of 1842, was composed of 
Creole and Canadian French, and Americans."" Jacob 
Dodson, a free negro, eighteen years of age, devoted 
to the Benton family, was a member; in all thirty- 
nine men. Fremont always very conscientiously gives 
the name of each member of his parties, but they will 
not be repeated here. His favourite man, Basil Lajeunesse, 
ever ready and ever faithful, was also of the party. Through 
Major Cummins, the Indian Agent of the locality, a friend 
of Senator Benton's, Fremont engaged the services of two 
fine Delaware Indians, a father and son, as hunters. Mr. 
Theodore Talbot of Washington, and Mr. Frederick Dwight 
of Springfield, Mass., the latter on his way to the Sandwich 
Islands and China, by way of Fort Vancouver, were with 
the company. The arms consisted of Hall's carbines and 
the aforesaid howitzer, the traditional fifth wheel to the 
waggon, to the management of which three men were detailed 
under the charge of the German artilleryman, Zindel. It 
is safe to say that neither Fitzpatrick nor Carson would have 
wasted much effort on this piece of ordnance. Twelve 
carts, drawn by two mules each, transported the bulk of the 
baggage, while a light spring waggon, or ambulance, carried 
the instruments. Fremont is always particular to enumer- 
ate the instruments he took with him, and in this instance 
they were: one refracting telescope by Frauenhofer, one 
reflecting circle by Gambey, two sextants by Troughton, one 
pocket chronometer by Brockbank, one syphon barometer 
by Bunten of Paris, one cistern barometer by Frye and Shaw, 
New York, and a number of small compasses. 

' By Creole French is meant natives of Louisiana of French descent. For 
the full list of names see Fremont's Memoirs, vol. i., p. 169. 




An Old-Time Frontier Scout 

These men had only muzzle-loading rifles 
From a drawing by Paxson 



Hon. William Gilpin 113 

On the 29th of May, 1843, the start was made from the 
little town or village which is now Kansas City and four 
miles covered in a cold rain to the "verge of the prairies." 
The route to South Pass was to be varied. That is, Fremont 
intended to follow up the Kaw or Kansas River, for a 
considerable distance, instead of the Platte as before, and 
cross through the mountains at some new point near the 
head of the Arkansas. This was expected to yield fresh 
knowledge of the region, and at the same time, if practicable, 
mark out a new road to Oregon by a more southerly course. 
On May 31st they arrived at Elm Grove, a station on the 
Santa Fe Trail, thirty miles from Westport (Kansas City), 
in what is now Johnson County. Near their camp was one 
of several waggons; a party under J. B. Chiles of Missouri, 
bound for California Alta. Mr. Chiles had with him ma- 
chinery for a saw-mill he intended to build on the Sacra- 
mento River. Here, by invitation, another remarkable 
Western man joined the caravan for the trip to Oregon, 
William Gilpin, a man of whom it has been said : " It is quite 
probable that the verdict of posterity will be that the West 
owes more to William Gilpin than to any other American. . . . 
It was not until Senator Benton had made the acquaintance 
of Gilpin that he became enthusiastic over the whole West. " ^ 
Yet one finds very little about Gilpin in biographies and 
cyclopedias. He was first governor of Colorado, a major 
under Doniphan, and colonel of a battalion called the " Santa 
Fe Trace Battalion" during the Mexican War. 

As far as the ford of the Kansas River, near where Topeka 
now lies, they were following the Oregon Trail as on the 
former journey, but there, instead of crossing the Kaw, 
or Kansas, they continued west along its south bank over 
a beautiful undulating country, traversed by many streams 
whose bottoms were densely wooded, and over uplands 
green and grassy; a region now too well known to require 

'William E. Connellcy, in Kansas Historical Society Collections, vol. x., 
p. 113. Gilpin was bom in Pennsylvania in 1822. 
8 



114 Fremont and '49 

description. Frequent bridges had to be built for even the 
small streams are often deep and "miry" and when a team, 
in the early days, the bridgeless days, drove in it was quite 
uncertain whether it could get out on the other side. There 
were deep, sharp, muddy gullies, too, all over Eastern Kansas, 
into which the front wheels of a waggon plunged, while the 
rear was up in the air, as I discovered many years after. 
With the carts of the Fremont expedition this trouble would 
not be so apparent. 

On the morning of the 4th of June a small party of Dela- 
ware and Kansas Indians were met returning from a hunting 
expedition. They were, of course, entirely friendly, but two 
days later a band of a different stripe startled the caravan, 
when Maxwell, who had gone back nine miles to the camp of 
the preceding day to look for a stray horse, suddenly appeared 
riding at full speed with a war party of Osages, heads shaved 
to the scalp-lock and brilliant with red blankets, in fierce 
pursuit. The Osages boldly charged into the train and cut 
out a number of good horses. Fremont and his men were 
ready. Well mounted they pursued and after a hard chase 
of seven or eight miles returned with all the stock. Fremont 
laments that this difficulty was ' ' a first fruit of having gentle- 
men in company — very estimable to be sure, but who are not 
trained to care and vigilance" and not subject to orders. 

By the 8th they reached the Smoky Hill Fork, which he 
says is the principal southern branch of the Kansas ; forming 
here, by its junction with the Republican, the main Kansas 
River. This is not the way these streams are classified 
to-day. The Kansas is now formed by the junction of the 
Smoky Hill and Solomon Forks; hence the part above the 
Republican junction which he describes as the Smoky Hill 
is really the Kansas itself as charted on our present maps. 
Rafts had to be built to make a crossing and it took a whole 
day. The junction by Fremont's observations was latitude 
39° 03' 3^"» longitude 96° 24' 56", with an altitude of 926 feet. 
Junction City is now within a mile or two of this spot. Its 



The Sensitive Plant 115 

altitude by the Kansas Pacific Railway is 1082 feet. The 
latitude is about correct but the longitude is almost 97. 

From here they went on up the Republican, or Pawnee 
Fork, through a beautiful, well watered country with herds 
of elk and antelope occasionally visible, till they reached, at 
length, what the Indians called the "Big Timbers," not the 
Big Timbers of the fur hunters and the maps, however, 
which was on the Arkansas River and was "an extensive 
grove or forest of cottonwoods extending for several miles 
along the river at some distance below the site of Bent's 
Fort."' Progress was slow with the carts, and in order to 
cover more territory, Fremont decided not to wait for them 
but to divide his party, and place Fitzpatrick in charge of the 
supply train, to come on as best he could to St. Vrain's Fort 
on the Platte with twenty-five men, while with the other 
fifteen, going light, except for that precious howitzer of 
brass and the instrument waggon, Fremont himself would 
be able to travel swiftly. On the morning of the i6th of 
June they separated. 

Fremont cut over to Solomon's Fork and journeyed across 
its tributaries for some days, noting, as usual with him, the 
character of the soil, the timber, plants, grasses, animals, 
etc., as no other explorer had ever done. Amongst other 
plants he mentions one that has remained a delight to me 
from the first time I saw it many years ago : the wild sensitive 
plant, Schrankia angustata. One could not travel far across 
the breezy prairie where this delicate plant flourishes with- 
out noticing it, and its sister, S. uncinata, especially the latter 
in its season of bloom, when its globular, down-like flower, 
of a purplish rose colour, exhales a fragrance as if sprayed 
with the attar of rose. Hence its name of "sensitive rose." 
The leaves, as is the habit of plants of this class, wilt to 
the ground at the touch of a hand. Proceeding north-west- 
erly across the Kansas counties of Clay, Cloud, Jewell, 
Smith, and the north-east corner of Phillips he crossed 

' Chittenden's American Fur Trade, p. 803. 



ii6 Fremont and *49 

the 40th parallel into Nebraska. On the 19th of June 
prairie dogs were seen for the first time, and after that 
there were many of them. The altitude increased; now 
1900 feet it soon ran up to 2130, as they mounted the 
Great Plains plateau. One stream was named Prairie Dog 
River on account of the myriads of these little creatures 
that existed along its bottoms. Prairie Dog Creek enters 
the Republican River in the county of Harlan, Southern 
Nebraska, near the town of Alma. Fremont gives the 
altitude of his camp on Prairie Dog River as 2350 feet, and 
39° 49' 28'latitude and 100° 52' 00" longitude. On the 25th 
of June they passed over high smooth ridges 3 100 feet above 
sea, with numberless buffalo covering the country, and 
camped within a few miles of the main Republican. 

The next day, soon after leaving this camp, they were 
surprised to discover a sudden and marked change in the 
character of the surroundings. Instead of fertility, sand 
hills, bare and arid, spread around them. Timber grew 
scarce; the features of the land took on a desert character 
and the Republican River, at which they arrived, was shallow, 
spreading out over an expanse of yellow sand with treeless 
banks. They had passed the looth meridian, which in 
later years came to be known as the general dividing line 
between the arid and the humid regions of the Far West. 
For several days they travelled through this broken and 
dry sandy waste, about 4000 feet altitude, across the 
south-western part of what is now Nebraska, and the north- 
eastern corner of Colorado, till on the last day of June they 
looked down upon "a broad and misty valley, where, about 
ten miles off, and a thousand feet below us, the South Fork 
of the Platte was rolling magnificently along, swollen with 
the waters of the melting snows. It was in strong and re- 
freshing contrast with the parched country from which we 
had just issued ; and when at night the broad expanse of water 
grew indistinct, it almost seemed that we had pitched our 
tents on the shore of the sea. " 




o y- 



3" 5 E 



< ^, 



St. Vrain's Again 117 

They reached the South Platte about opposite the mouth 
of Pawnee Creek, near Atwood, Logan County, Colorado, 
and were on the trail of the 1 842 expedition again, Fremont's 
map published with his Memoirs does not cover this part of 
his journeying, and furthermore it is an exceedingly poor 
map from a geographer's standpoint, yet it was made as late 
as 1886. Probably Fremont did not himself direct its pre- 
paration.^ On June 31st they reached Bijou Creek as they 
proceeded up the Platte, and caught again that first faint 
blue of the mountains which always comes like an inspi- 
ration. Soon they saw Long's Peak and the rest of the 
range glittering with snow, and on the 4th of July arrived 
at St. Vrain's Fort where the custodian invited them to join 
him in the feast with which the day was to be honoured. 

Fremont had expected to replenish here his exhausted 
larder and also to purchase some fresh horses or mules, but 
in both he was disappointed as on his former visit, for the 
post happened to be impoverished at this time also. In a 
game country the inability to secure provisions did not 
matter so much, but the lack of good animals for travelling 
was serious . Few persons who have never been far from rail- 
ways, and other organised transportation, can appreciate 
the great dependence one must place on his horses or mules. 
One can walk, to be sure, as Robert Stuart and others had 
to do, and even carry baggage on his back, but it is a condition 
never welcomed and hampering to the last degree. In a 
wilderness, with good animals, one is a king; without, a 
beggar. Having heard that mules could be obtained at Taos, 
a large herd having arrived from California, Maxwell, who 
was to go down there to visit his family, was commissioned 
to buy ten or twelve, pack them with provisions and neces- 
saries, and meet the party again at the mouth of the Fontaine 
qui Bouit (generally written later as "qui Bouille"), or Boil- 

'The reader is referred for the exact route to the map of the 1842 and 
1843-44 routes, published with the Report and also by the Topographical 
Bureau. 



ii8 Fremont and '49 

ing Spring Creek, now called Fountain Creek, on the Arkan- 
sas River, where Fremont intended to go before long. 

This was the site of the present city of Pueblo, Colorado, 
and the site of the trading establishment and settlement 
which the mulatto scout, fur trader, and Crow chieftain Jim 
Beckwourth, and others, had established the previous 
year, October, 1842. Chittenden speaks of Beckwourth as 
"one of those 'charming liars' . . . who are delightful 
to listen to for the very enormity of their misstatements. 
The early West had many such characters, but few, like 
Beckwourth, have made themselves a place in literature 
and history." Captain Chittenden is rather too severe on 
Beckwourth, it seems to me, for Beckwourth appears to have 
been a frontiersman hardly surpassed in dexterity and skill 
by Bridger, Carson, Fitzpatrick, Jedediah Smith, or any of 
the others of that masterful band, but as he was believed 
to be of partly African blood, this put him at a disadvan- 
tage, especially with writers of the slave-holding States, who 
would consider him impudent to rate himself high. ^ 

Lieutenant Pike, in 1806, built a rough defensive struc- 
ture a little above the mouth of Fountain Creek, and others 
sojourned in the neighbourhood in the "interval between that 
time and the winter of 1821-22, when Jacob Fowler, a fur- 
trader, built and occupied a cabin there; but the first 
permanent settlers were Jim Beckwourth and his colleagues, 
Jim having arrived with his latest wife, Louise Sandeville, in 
October, 1842, and started a trading-post which was success- 
ful. He was 

joined by from fifteen to twenty free trappers with their 
families. We all united our labours and constructed an adobe 
fort sixty yards square. By the following spring [that is the 
spring of this year of Fremont's second expedition] we had 
grown into quite a litte settlement, and we gave it the name of 

'"There was no appearance whatever of the negro in Beckwourth, yet 
all the old trappers and plainsrnen called him a * nigger.' " — William E. 
Connelley, private letter. 



Pueblo Founded 119 

Pueblo. Many of the company devoted themselves to agricul- 
ture, and raised very good crops the first season, such as wheat, 
corn, oats, potatoes, and abundance of all kinds of vegetables.* 

At St. Vrain's one of the party, Oscar Sarpy, finding the 
occupation too fatiguing was discharged by his own request, 
and provided with arms and means of transportation to 
Fort Laramie, whence he could go back East with some 
party of trappers. He was a confirmed tenderfoot, and this 
kind of a person is a nuisance on any expedition. He will 
choose a wrong direction every time to get anywhere, and 
generally have no ability to take care of himself. On July 
6th Maxwell set out for Taos, in the south, across the range, 
on the Rio Grande, the Spanish-Indian town which was then 
the gateway of New Mexico for the caravans of the Santa 
Fe Trail. Fremont continued his line of march up the 
Platte, soon passing the remains of two abandoned forts, 
one of which was still in a state of good preservation. After 
ten miles they reached the trading-post of Lupton called 
Fort Lancaster.^ Here were horses, pigs, cattle, poultry, etc., 
a regular ranch in fact. Fremont halted an hour and then 
followed his caravan. 

The next day on up the Platte a large village of Arapahos 
was met with ; about 160 lodges located in a beautiful bottom. 
It was a prosperous community which received the white 
visitors with cordial hospitality. They were disappointed 
when Fremont said he had few presents for them ; that almost 
everything was back with his main caravan under the care 
of the "White Head" or "Broken Hand," as they called 

• Bonner's Life of Beckwourth, 1856, p. 464. 

' Robert Morris Peck in Kansas Historical Collections, vol. viii., p. 493, says: 
"On the second day's march [1857I down the South Platte after leav-ing the 
mouth of Cherry Creek, we passed the ruins of three old abandoned trading - 
posts, a few miles apart, which I was told were formerly called respectively 
Forts Lupton, Lancaster, and St. Vrain, after their several owners. They 
seemed to have been abandoned several years, nothing remaining but the 
crumbling 'dobc walls. " 



I20 Fremont and '49 

Fitzpatrick. Continuing the explorers made their camp 
that night of July 7, 1843, on the Platte, a little above the 
mouth of Cherry Creek, a site now within the limits of the 
prosperous and beautiful city of Denver; Cherry Creek — 
that uncertain, unregulated, flow of water, sometimes a 
dribble, sometimes a deluge. During the earlier days of 
the city it was a subject of contention, some people declaring 
Cherry Creek was able to take care of itself, and a far larger 
number admitting that fact and also that it could take care 
of everything along its banks — take care to wash everything 
down to St. Louis. I well remember one very dark, wet, 
night in 1877, when the wild pealing of all the bells in town 
broke my sleep, and going out to discover the cause, it was 
found to be the indomitable Cherry Creek, once more break- 
ing a record. In the dim light the waves could be seen 
"mountain high, " booming and roaring, seeking whom they 
could devour. It seemed an impertinence for that ridiculous 
rivulet of the day before to be so easily causing such defiant 
devastation. 

Where the South Platte divided into three forks, accord- 
ing to Fremont's observation, he followed the easternmost 
one. This appears to have been Plum Creek, and up it 
they went on the 8th, from eleven in the morning till night, 
when they camped on the East Branch about, say, where the 
town of Greenland now stands. The next day they pro- 
ceeded eastward along the divide between the Arkansas 
and Platte waters, in search of buffalo, and incidentally new 
information, passing many of the singularly eroded rocks 
now so well known, one of which the men called the Pound- 
cake, a circular fiat rock two or three hundred yards in cir- 
cumference on top of a hill. This region is near the head of 
Monument Creek and the most remarkable portion of it 
farther south on Monument Creek has been called Monu- 
ment Park. A little farther south is the beautiful area 
named "The Garden of the Gods, " beyond which the domi- 
nating crest of Pike's Peak is seen. 




Monumental Forms 

In Monument Park, Colorado. The rcRion is full of strange erosions of this kind 
From Hayden's Report, 1877 



m- 



A Rich Country 121 

Although the time was July loth, snow fell heavily on 
the mountains and the great peak was white, as low down 
as they could see it, when they started on eastward over 
a rolling country, crossing the head-watcrof the Kiowa River 
and spending the night on the Bijou Fork, probably a short 
distance east of the present town of Sidney. Discovering 
no buffalo, the nth found the caravan turning southward 
up the valley of the Bijou to an altitude of 7500 feet above 
sea and camping on the edge of the Arkansas drainage. 
"The soil," Fremont says, "of all this country [from the 
Missouri out] is excellent, admirably adapted to agricultural 
and pastoral population." How different this judgment 
from that of the travellers and explorers gone before who had 
proclaimed the same area worthless, and no more than a 
desolate barrier of barren desert. Recent census figures 
emphasise this correct estimate of the young engineer. The 
annual value per square mile of the farm products of this 
extensive region ranges from $300 to $5000, while from 
100 to 10,000 bushels of grain per square mile are produced. 
This is up to the looth meridian; beyond that the yield is 
irregular. Some of the finest fruits and most delicious 
melons in the world come from the very parts that were 
considered hopeless in the early years. 

Turning to the south-west on July 12th, Fremont led his 
party to the waggon road that ran from St. Vrain's, etc., 
south to the Santa Fe Trail, to Bent's Fort, and camped 
on the Fontaine qui Bouit where it was fifty feet wide, at an 
altitude of 5800 feet, which must have been very near the 
site of Colorado Springs of to-day. The next morning 
they took to the heavily beaten, old Indian highway trail 
which, from the earliest memory of man and before, came 
down the Fountain Creek, from South Park, through the well- 
known canyon; from the Bayou Salade, Fremont says, using 
the nomenclature of the time. At noon on July 14th they 
camped on the Arkansas at the mouth of Fountain Creek, 
a little below the settlement described before, of which Jim 



122 Fremont and '49 

Beckwourth claimed to be a leading citizen: the village of 
Pueblo from which the thriving and enterprising city of 
Pueblo of to-day has grown in the space of seventy-one 
years. 

The explorers were heartily welcomed, but Fremont 
was disappointed with the news received: there had been 
trouble at Taos ; foreigners were attacked, and their property 
had been destroyed; Maxwell's father-in-law, Beaubien, 
had been obliged to escape to Santa Fe. ' What would be- 
come of Maxwell, himself, en route, no one could guess. 
There was, therefore, no chance of securing supplies in that 
direction, especially as the Mexican government now issued 
an edict prohibiting trade with Americans. Kit Carson 
joined the party here and was at once sent to Bent's Fort, 
about seventy miles down the Arkansas, after mules. He was 
to travel across country from Bent's to St. Vrain's to meet 
Fremont again, but this was no task for him. A new man 
was engaged here, one Charles Towns, evidently to take 
the place of Sarpy, the confirmed tenderfoot. According 
to the observations taken the mouth of Fountain Creek, 
the site of Pueblo, was in latitude 38° 15' 23" and longitude 
104° 58' 30", with an altitude above the sea of 4880 feet. 
The altitude given to-day according to the railway (D, & 
R. G.) is 4660 feet at the Union Station. Hayden made it 
4703, and the longitude 104° 33' 48" latitude 38° 16' 36'^ 

Maxwell not having arrived on the i6th of July, the time 
agreed on, a note was left for him to come on to St. Vrain's 
by the 26th, and the party retraced its way up Fountain 
Creek to the present position of Manitou, Fremont riding 
ahead and looking for the, even then, "celebrated springs," 

' Beckwourth says his trade with New Mexico was spoiled at this time 
(1843) because "the whole country was in a ferment on account of Colonel 
Cook's expedition from Texas which resulted so disastrously for the parties 
concerned." The Mexicans now disliked everything American. He gave 
up the effort to trade with them and went to California. (P. 464 of his Life, 
1856.) See also mention of the Texan Santa Fe expedition in Chapter II., 
this work. 



Manitou Springs 123 

from which the Fontaine qui Bouit had received its name. 
Fremont's description of his visit to these now world-famous 
springs is so graceful that I quote it entire : 

In the meantime, the clouds, which had been gathered all 
the afternoon over the mountains, began to roll down their sides ; 
and a storm so violent burst upon me, that it appeared I had 
entered the storehouse of the thunder-storms. I continued, 
however, to ride along up the river until about sunset, and was 
beginning to be doubtful of finding the springs before the next day 
when I came suddenly upon a large smooth rock, about twenty 
yards in diameter, where the water from several springs was bub- 
bling and boiling up in the midst of a white incrustation, with 
which it had covered a portion of the rock. As this did not 
correspond with the description given me by the hunters, I did 
not stop to taste the water, but dismounting, walked a little 
way up the river, and, passing through a narrow thicket of 
shrubbery bordering the stream, stepped directly upon a huge 
white rock, at the foot of which the river, already become a torrent, 
foamed along, broken by a small fall. A deer which had been 
drinking at the spring was startled by my approach, and, spring- 
ing across the river, bounded off up the mountain. In the upper 
part of the rock, which had apparently been formed by deposition, 
was a beautiful white basin, overhung by currant bushes, in 
which the cold clear water bubbled up, kept in constant motion 
by the escaping gas, and overflowing the rock, which it had al- 
most entirely covered with a smooth crust of glistening white. 
I had all day refrained from drinking, reserving myself for the 
spring; and as I could not well be more wet than the rain had 
already made me, I lay down by the side of the basin, and 
drank heartily of the delightful water. The spring is situated 
immediately at the foot of lofty mountains, beautifully timbered, 
which sweep closely round, shutting up the little valley in a kind 
of cove. As it was beginning to grow dark, I rode quickly down 
the river, on which I found the camp a few miles below.' 

The 1 8th of July, the day following the arrival at the 

' Report, p. 117. 



124 Fremont and '49 

springs, was clear and beautiful. As all wanted to drink of 
these delicious waters, the Lieutenant very considerately 
ordered camp to be pitched immediately at the spot, and the 
whole day was spent there, enjoying the rest and the beauty 
of the majestic surroundings, as well as the effervescing 
waters, in my opinion equal to any in the world. Neither 
Manitou, Colorado Springs, nor the once important Colorado 
City, between the two, were even dreamed of at this time; 
the hand and foot of man, and his advertising paint-pot, had 
not yet tarnished the innocence of nature in this locality. 
Fortunately the people who finally settled there have had, 
from the start, a just estimate of their responsibility as 
custodians of one of the most delightful places in the West. 
They have valiantly fought the paint-pot pirate, and it is to 
be hoped that they will be forever successful in keeping his 
desecrating signs in the pot where they belong. The extent 
to which people will tolerate advertising signs on the scenery 
of a country is the gauge of their souls. ^ No advertising 
man, who destroys natural beauty, can ever expect to enter 
heaven. His soul is dead. 

Fremont gives the altitude, as determined at the time, as 
6350 feet. The Denver and Rio Grande Railway gives the 
altitude of Manitou as 6307. The caravan made a good start 
for the north on the 19th, but "a shaft of the gun-carriage 
was broken in the afternoon" and necessarily an early camp 
was made. They were travelling up Monument Creek, and 
on the 20th they crossed the divide again, to the head of 
East Plum Creek, down which they proceeded to the South 
Platte, and to St. Vrain's Fort, where the resolute Fitzpatrick 
and his party were discovered encamped, all in good health, 
with the provisions husbanded and preserved with conscien- 

' In one of the beautiful fiords of Norway the captain of our German ship 
sent a gang of men with a paint-pot to paint in white letters of enormous size 
high up on the cHffs the name of our vessel with the date, alongside others 
already there. I was astounded. My condemnation was intended to be 
silenced by the statement that the name of the Emperor's private yacht 
was placed there by his order. 




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Searching for a Pass 125 

tious care. The indomitable Kit Carson had also arrived 
from Bent's Fort with ten good mules. Meat was the only 
thing lacking, but nevertheless all "fared luxuriously." 

The Lieutenant here makes a peculiar statement: "I 
had been able to obtain no certain information in regard 
to the passes in this portion of the Rocky Mountain Range. " 
This is incomprehensible when we do not forget that Kit Car- 
son and Thomas Fitzpatrick who were with him knew the 
Rocky Mountain Range from one end to the other within 
the limits of what is now the United States, especially the 
part south of what is now Yellowstone Park. He further 
states that : 

The passes had always been represented as impracticable 
for carriages, but that the exploration of which was inciden- 
tally contemplated by my instructions with the view of 
finding some convenient point of passage for the road of emi- 
gration, which would enable it to reach, on a more direct 
line, the usual ford of the Great Colorado [Green River] — 
a place considered as determined by the nature of the country 
beyond that river. It is singular that, immediately at the foot 
of the mountains, I could find no one sufficiently acquainted 
with them to guide us to the plains at their western base; but 
the race of trappers who formerly lived in their recesses has 
almost entirely disappeared — dwindled to a few scattered indi- 
viduals — some one or two of whom are regularly killed in the 
course of each year by the Indians. 

Two of the best informed, most noted and skilful, of 
these men he now had in his party ! He mentions that the 
Cheyennes who had accompanied him on the previous 
expedition up the Platte, had, shortly after, with a number 
of others, discovered a few trappers in the neighbouring 
mountains whom they murdered, although one, whom they 
knew, had been in the country thirty years. This seems 
at first glance a serious indictment of the Indian as base and 



126 Fremont and '49 

cruel, without even consideration for an old acquaintance, 
but it must be remembered that Fremont had only a second- 
hand version; and, furthermore, that some of these trappers 
for years had been systematically swindling the natives by 
getting them drunk, and buying their most valuable furs 
for a miserable measure of mixed alcohol and water; that 
they had often joined one tribe to make war on another for 
the fun of "shooting Indians"; that Walker and his men, 
of Bonneville's expedition, in their course down the Hum- 
boldt, had, for amusement, shot to death the innocent and 
frightened Indians right and left, and that some of the trap- 
pers were specially noted as "Indian Shooters." 

The Indian was anything but perfect; yet, balancing the 
white intruder into his country with him, fairly, justly, with- 
out hatred or prejudice, either way, the Indian is found 
to be on the whole no less just and human; often more so. 
When Fitzpatrick was attacked and robbed some ten years 
before by one of the tribes, he unequivocally charged that 
the wealthy monopoly called the American Fur Company, 
for their own advantage, had instigated the depredations. 
General Ashley, to whom Fitzpatrick wrote this accusation, 
sent the letter to the Department of Indian Affairs, whose 
Superintendent at that period was the famous General 
William Clark, companion of Meriwether Lewis in the great 
first expedition to the mouth of the Columbia. The 
political abettor of the American Fur Company at this time 
was Senator Benton, and he was also a friend of General 
Clark. It required all his skill and influence to prevent 
the dissolution by Congress of the company because of 
several incidents, chief among which were the operation of 
a whiskey-still at one of their posts and the Fitzpatrick 
robbery. The Indians loved to get drunk; the Hudson Bay 
Company encouraged their drinking as they found it highly 
profitable to exchange alcohol and water for splendid furs; 
and the American Company asserted that they could not 
compete with the British without the like privilege to trade in 



A New Route 127 

alcohol, which the United States Government had unequivo- 
cally and positively prohibited and was fighting with every 
available resource. Where great financial profit is involved 
the white man has seldom been backward in throwing to the 
winds all moral precepts. He is angelic only in his own 
conceit. After debauching the Indian, setting him like a 
bloodhound on the track of the enemy, political or commer- 
cial, he then sanctimoniously is shocked at treachery and 
brutality. As a fact the Indian was no more proficient in 
these base accomplishments than the European, and the 
history of North America bears out this statement over and 
over. 

Fremont concluded to cut through the mountains by 
means of the valley of the Cache a la Poudre River north- 
westwardly, from near its junction with the South Platte, 
not far from the site of the present town of Greeley, Colorado, 
to the head of the Sweetwater and South Pass. To accom- 
pHsh this with the least possible difficulty, he again divided his 
forces into two parts. One, under the management of the 
efficient and experienced Fitzpatrick, was to travel by practi- 
cally the same route to Fort Laramie as was taken by the 
smaller division from this point the previous year, thence 
follow the Oregon Trail to the Hudson Bay Post of Fort Hall 
on Snake River, the post from which Wyeth was ousted. 
Along with this party went Alexander Godey, a young hunter , 
of six or seven years ' mountain experience, engaged to keep [ 
them in meat, the two Delawares having determined to go 
home. Of Godey, Fremont has onl}^ the highest commenda- 
tion, comparing him with Carson, than which no praise was 
higher in the Far West at that time. With Fremont's own 
party was a Shoshone squaw, relict of a French "engage" of 
Lupton's Fort who had been shot and killed. She wished 
to return to the land of her fathers and took this opportunity. 
As six pack-horses were required to transport her property, 
including a small tent which Fremont gave her, , she had 
evidently prospered in the valley of the Platte. 



128 Fremont and '49 

Fremont's immediate company included Kit Carson, 
Preuss, Basil Lajeunesse, Frangois Lajeunesse, Dodson the 
negro, Louis Zindel the artilleryman, and seven others 
besides himself, making fourteen in all. Before starting 
he took latitude and longitude observations, giving the 
position of St. Vrain this time, latitude 40° 16' 33'' (52" in 
his table) and longitude 105° 12' 23", with an altitude of 
4930 feet. The actual longitude is about 104° 50' 06", and 
altitude 5120 feet (U. S. G. S.). On the afternoon of the 26th 
of July the parties separated to pursue their selected routes. 
The Platte was high from rains and melting snows in the 
mountains and Fremont had some difficulty in crossing. He 
soon came to Thompson Creek where he camped. From here 
he crossed north-westerly to the Cache a la Poudre, which he 
apparently reached below the mouth of Box Elder Creek. 
Fording the main stream on the morning of July 28th, they 
entered what Fremont, after the usage of the day, called 
the Black Hills, now the Laramie Mountains. The river 
was torrential, frequent crossings were necessary, and though 
it was only forty or fifty feet wide the declivity gave the 
current great force and the rocky bottom made footings pre- 
carious. A few miles above the site of Fort Collins, Colorado, 
they had to make a detour on account of a narrow canyon, 
marked on some old maps by a small settlement called La 
Porte. On the 30th they left the Cache a la Poudre and 
emerged from the mountains, camping at night near the 
boundary line between Colorado and Wyoming, which is 
the 41st parallel. 

The last day of July, they kept westward very near 
the boundary, camping on Laramie River, in latitude 
41° 15' 02", longitude 106° 16' 54". The longitude is 
actually about 105° 40'. He was now a few miles south- 
west of the present city of Laramie on the line of the 
Union Pacific Railway. If he could have foreseen the 
building of a railway across the continent, his and Sena- 
tor Benton's cherished idea, by this route, much future 



The Yampa Root 129 

trouble would have been spared him, but the location of the 
first line was a long and difficult task of elimination. August 
1st they travelled in an open country along the eastern foot 
of the Medicine Bow Range with no excitement but a buffalo 
bull chase and a brief encounter with a war party of about 
thirty Sioux and Cheyennes. At noon on August 2d they 
were on "the most western branch of Laramie River" which 
ought to be Four Mile Creek. There was here a large open 
bottom with many lodge poles lying about and nearby "three 
strong forts, that appeared to have been recently occupied. " 
The Shoshone woman at this place dug yampa roots, a 
favourite food of the natives wherever it grows, and Fremont 
was interested to make its acquaintance. He classes it as 
Anethiim graveolens.^ It is so abundant on one river tribu- 
tary to the Green that the stream has been called by its name. 
Fremont says the Yampa River was also called Little Snake 
by the trappers but in this he seems to have been mistaken. 
Little Snake was, and still is, the name of a branch of the 
Yampa. The latter was called Bear River by the trappers, 
and it is marked on early maps by both names. ^ In 1871 
when I saw the Yampa at its mouth, our party all spoke 
of it as Yampa or Bear River, the former name being put on 
our maps because it was the native name; there was, too, the 
other Bear River flowing into Salt Lake. Fremont placed 
the aboriginal name on his map, but nevertheless the 
trappers' name long persisted. The night of the 2d they 
camped on the " principal fork of Medicine Bow River," near 
Medicine Butte, probably not a great distance from the 
little town of Milo, Carbon County, Wyoming. His obser- 
vations gave latitude 41° 37' 16" and longitude 106° 47' 25", 
with an altitude of 7800 feet above sea. The longitude is 
too far west. 

' The Handbook of American Indians says the word is from the Ute 
Ydmpa; in botany, Carum gairdneri. 

^Farnham speaks of it as "Little Bear River," in 1839: Travels in tJie 
Great Western Prairies, N. Y., 1843. 
9 



130 Fremont and '49 

The next day early they entered the pass of the Medicine 
Butte, through which led a broad trail, recently travelled by 
a very large party. There was some hard work getting 
through on account of ravines and dense groves of aspens. 
While the men were clearing a way Fremont took a meridional 
observation of the sun which gave his latitude position as 
41° 35' 48'^ After reaching the plain bands of buffalo were 
seen and plenty of good buffalo meat gladdened the camp. 
Considerable difficulty was met with the following day in 
attempting to pass down a ravine after crossing the North 
Platte (which they did a few miles south of the Union Pacific 
Railway crossing to-day) and making an attempt to find a 
small stream a few miles higher up. They were obliged to 
camp in their tracks after dark at a point which, when day- 
light came, proved to be only a mile from the main river, to 
which they at once proceeded and went into camp, to jerk 
buffalo meat. 

While all hands were engrossed in this occupation, except 
the horse guard, there was a sudden charge upon them of 
about seventy mounted Indians from beyond some low hills. 
The shrill war-whoop resounded and the scene immediately 
was one of violent activity. The horse guard having noticed 
an Indian's head cautiously lifted above a hill crest was able 
at once to turn the horses into camp. The explorers sprang 
to the defensive and the redoubtable howitzer was trained 
on the rapidly approaching enemy, who, as they rode near, 
agreeably surprised the defenders by quick signs of peace. 
This was accepted by the whites, of course, and the raiders 
then explained that they had charged under the impression 
that it was a camp of hostiles, only discovering the mistake 
on close approach. Fremont did not believe them but he was 
willing to accept the excuse for what it was worth. He 
thought the sight of the howitzer had changed their minds. 
"The pipe went round, provisions were spread, and the 
tobacco and goods furnished the customary presents." 
They were a defeated war party of Arapahos and 



The Great Divide 131 

Cheyennes, returning from an expedition against some 
Shoshones camped near the fort which Jim Bridger had 
recently estabHshed on Black's Fork of Green River. ^ 
An attack had been made on this village during the 
absence of its warriors and a number of horses and several 
scalps secured. The marauders were pursued, lost their 
stolen horses except some belonging to the whites, and several 
men killed. A number also were wounded. Near sunset the 
disgruntled band departed, much to the relief of Fremont, 
who however kept his men on the lookout for their return. 

The observations at this camp gave the position as latitude 
41° 36' 00", longitude 107° 22' 27", and altitude 6820 feet. 
They were now entering upon that singular, barren plateau 
which forms the Continental Divide at this point, the same 
region that Robert Stuart traversed in 18 12 after coming 
through South Pass, a region where the few streams belong 
to neither one side nor the other but lose themselves in the 
sand. Travelling over this ill- watered district was irksome 
when a valley with good water lay close at the north, and 
Fremont, near the present town of Rawlins, Wyoming, 
turned his course directly north towards the Sweetwater. On 
August 9th they reached at noon what is now called Muddy 
Creek, which cuts through the mountains bordering the 
Sweetwater Valley on the south, and that night they camped 
on the familiar river, about twenty miles above the Devil's 
Gate. 

They were now once more on the travelled road, such as 
it was, the Oregon Trail, a "broad smooth highway where 
the heavy waggons of the emigrants had entirely beaten and 
crushed the artemisia. " This, Fremont continues, was a 
"happy exchange to our poor animals for the sharp rocks 
and tough shrubs, . . . and we moved up the valley rapidly 

» Frdmont says Ham's Fork but this was a mistake. Bridger in a letter to 
Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Dec. lo, 1843, says: " I have established a small fort with 
a blacksmith shop ... on Black's Fork of Green River." See Chittenden's 
Fur Trade, p. 972. 



132 Fremont and '49 

and pleasantly." By the evening of the 12th they were at 
the point where the road turned off to cross to the "plains" 
of Green River ; to what was known in trapper days as Green 
River Valley. They entered upon the waters of the Pacific 
Slope by a route farther south than on the former trip, and 
"very near Table Mountain at the southern extremity of 
South Pass, which is near twenty miles in width and already 
traversed by several roads." Fremont wrote these words 
in his second report, and in his first was equally explicit, as 
to the travel on the road before he came, and yet he was 
hotly charged later with claiming to be the discoverer of 
South Pass! It was over the south part of the Pass, close 
to Table Mountain, that I surmise Robert Stuart came, be- 
fore swinging to the south-east and then almost paralleling 
the Sweetwater Valley about twenty miles away till he struck 
the North Platte. 

Fremont's barometrical observation gave him 7490 feet as 
the altitude of the Pass as against his figures of 7000 of the 
previous year. The altitude as established by railway survey 
(F. E. & M. V. Ry) is 7397. He gives much data concerning 
distances, etc., because of its "importance as the great gate 
through which commerce and travelling may hereafter 
pass between the valley of the Mississippi and the North 
Pacific," but this now is of little general interest. The 
engineers of the Union Pacific Railway, with Jim Bridger's 
help, found a lower and better pass and when the iron rails 
spanned from the North Platte to Bitter Creek, South Pass 
as a highway was forgotten. If Fremont had continued 
westward from where he crossed the North Platte on this 
expedition he would have gone over the very route of the 
future Union Pacific to Green River, and he might have 
noticed its adaptability for a railway; it was such a route 
as he was looking for on subsequent journeys. 

From South Pass he went down the Sandy, tributary of 
Green River, and on the 15th of August camped in Mexi- 
can territory on the left bank of the Green sixty-nine miles 



Green River Valley 133 

from South Pass in longitude according to his observation 
110° 05' 05" and latitude 41° 53' 54", on the emigrant road 
to Oregon, "which bears much to the southward to avoid the 
mountains about the heads of Green River — the Rio Verde 
of the Spaniards." This is the only statement I know of 
that Green River was once called Rio Verde. It is generally- 
believed to have been named after some trapper, but there 
is uncertainty about the origin of its present title, whether 
from the color of the water, the verdure on its banks, 
or from a person. Spanish River was one name for 
it in the earliest times. The Crows called it Seedskeedee 
Agie, or Prairie-hen River. Fremont is now in the midst 
of the great rendezvous of the fur-traders, trappers, and 
Indians of the preceding two decades: Green River Valley. 
The river here abounded in grassy bottom-lands with beauti- 
ful groves of huge cottonwoods; and with the abundance 
of excellent water, the valley was an ideal camp-ground, 
summer or winter. The particular locality selected for the 
annual meeting or "rendezvous" was a place where the river 
for two or three miles was bordered by specially wide bottoms 
luxuriant with grass. If I am correct in identifying it this 
favourite stretch lay just north of where the Union Pacific 
Railway crosses the stream. Towering above the landscape 
on the east side of the river is the line of cliffs terminating in 
a huge monumental butte, just above the town of Green 
River, made famous by the delightful pictures of Thomas 
Moran, for he painted a number of this subject. 

Here Carson, Fitzpatrick, Sublette, Bridger, Smith, 
Ashley, and all the rest of that remarkable set, had often 
congregated in the twenty years gone by, and here Carson 
had the duel on horseback with the profligate bully Shuman, 
whom he wounded, and here also many an exciting incident 
bloody and otherwise had been witnessed that has found no 
record. In the fur-hunting period this valley of Green 
River was probably the most noted locality in all the central 
region. In 1871, at the time of my first visit, one, at least, 



134 Fremont and '49 

of the old-timers was still resident there, a squaw-man 
of French descent named Gebow. Unfortunately it did 
not then occur to me to get any of his tales. The extent 
of the valley was from 43°, south to the Uinta Mountains, 
about 140 miles, with a mean width of about 70 miles, 
the river flowing from north to south through the middle. 
The valley terminates on the south abruptly, where the 
river cuts sharply into the flanks of the Uinta Mountains, 
and is thereafter canyoned for a thousand miles, with two or 
three short openings. Fremont speaks of the river's "foam- 
ing course among its lofty precipices" as described by trap- 
pers, and says "no trappers have been found bold enough to 
undertake a voyage which has so certain a prospect of fatal 
termination." It was, however, attempted by General 
Ashley in 1825, again by William Manley in 1849, and by 
one or two other parties, but the first complete and success- 
ful descent was by Major Powell in 1869, with a second jour- 
ney in 1871-72 which I accompanied. "^ Fremont touches the 
river again at several points but he seems never to have 
entertained an idea of exploring it. He now proceeds to 
Salt Lake and explores that remarkable body of water. 

^ For information on the Green and Colorado Rivers, see The Romance 
of the Colorado River and A Canyon Voyage, by F. S. Dellenbaugh; Report 
on the Exploration of the Colorado of the West, by J. W. Powell; In and Around 
the Grand Canyon, by George Wharton James; and works by C. E. Button 
and Wm. M. Davis. 



CHAPTER VII 

GREEN RIVER VALLEY TO SALT LAKE 

Jim Bridger at Salt Lake — Fremont Crosses to Bear River — The Famous 
Beer Spring— " Digger" Indians — Vegetarians Despised — Range of the 
American Bison and Its Extermination — Afloat on Bear River — Camp 
Near Ogden, Utah — Navigation of Salt Lake — Disappointment Island 
— Swimming in Brine — Brigham Young's Accusations. 

WHEN Escalante, in 1776, made his remarkable 
entrada, from Santa Fe to the valley of the Great 
Salt Lake, he came very near discovering that 
unusual body of water. He turned south, however, from 
Utah Lake and left the discovery for the American trappers. 
It has been claimed that Etienne Provost, who was very 
early in the Rocky Mountains, was the first white man to 
reach the lake, about 1820, and it is quite possible that this 
is so, but Jim Bridger, then in Ashley's employ, is given the 
honour in the winter of 1824-25, and apparently Provost 
had not mentioned a salt lake to him, for when he arrived at 
its shores, he was astonished to find the water salt when he, 
with some other trappers, dismounted to get a drink. ' ' They 
all spit out the water and Bridger exclaimed, 'Hell, we 
are on the shore of the Pacific!' From where they stood 
looking south-west no land appeared beyond the lake hori- 
zon but Strawberry Island." ' Captain E. L. Berthoud, from 
one of whose letters to me I quote the foregoing, knew 
Bridger well, and he states further that he believed that 



* The usual version of Bridger's discovery of Salt Lake is, that in the winter 
of 1824-25 he was chosen to decide a bet between two of the trappers encamped 
on Bear River, as to where it emptied, and in tracing the river down he came to 

I3S 



136 Fremont and '49 

when Bridger was consulted as to facts he was truth itself, 
but that when he wished to tell stories as stories he was most 
skilful. "One of his amusing tales was that the water of 
Fire Hole River fell so swiftly that the water got heated by 
friction!" The idea that Salt Lake might be an arm of the 
Pacific was not dispelled till the spring of 1826 when four of 
General Ashley's trappers circumnavigated it in a skin 
canoe. 

Captain Bonneville, according to Irving, had set his 
heart on thoroughly exploring this strange body of water, 
and not being able to direct his personal attention to the 
task, he delegated it to his chief assistant Joe Walker, and on 
July 24, i'833, that expert hunter and trapper started with 
a large party, to make a complete circuit and examination. 
Others have asserted that the desire to have the lake explored 
was an afterthought. The Walker party got demoralised 
on the desert and were so pressed for drinking water that 
they struck for some snowy mountains to secure it, and in 
this way fell upon the head of what Fremont is later to 
name Humboldt River, then vaguely known as Ogden's, 
and they made their way west by its valley to and across 
the Sierra Nevada down to Monterey, where they passed a 
jolly winter with the Mexicans. Walker we shall find later 
going over a similar route with Fremont. His journey of 
1833 was the second by a white man across the Great 
Basin, Jedediah Smith's having been the first, in May and 
June, 1827. 

On August 16, 1843, the expedition, by an easy ford, 
crossed the Green from their camp just above the mouth of 
the Sandy, and after following down the right bank for 
seven or eight miles through refreshing groves of cotton- 
wood, the regular trail, they halted for noon in latitude 
41° 46' 54" near some old houses which had formed a trad- 
Salt Lake. It is quite likely that some of the others went with him, which 
would harmonise this tale which he told Berthoud. The whole camp believed 
the salt water to be an arm of the sea, until 1826 as noted. 



On Black's Fork 137 

ing-post. The altitude was determined to be 6320 feet. The 
altitude of the Union Pacific Railway crossing a few miles 
below is 6082 feet, and the mouth of the Sandy is 6240. In 
the afternoon the Oregon Trail led them south-westward 
from the Green, and in twenty-six miles they arrived at what 
Fremont took to be Black's Fork, but which in reality was 
Ham's Fork a little above its junction with the Black; that 
is a short distance from the present town of Granger on 
the Union Pacific. This mistake is what caused him in his 
narrative to place Fort Bridger on Ham's Fork instead of 
where it was, on Black's Fork. These streams meander a 
good deal and are very much alike. 

"The heavy waggons," he says, "have so completely pul- 
verised the soil that clouds of fine, light dust are raised by the 
slightest wind, making the road sometimes very disagree- 
able." This dust probably explains why he does not mention 
the splendid view to be had along here of the Uinta Moun- 
tains. There is hardly anything more uncomfortable than 
travelling on one of these Western roads when deep with this 
pulverised dirt, fine as flour, flying on the breeze, or envelop- 
ing the outfit in a suffocating cloud all day long ; especially in 
very hot weather, when it "cakes " upon one's face and eyes. 
It indicated the great amount of travel toward Oregon for 
free land and free air at this early date, due largely to the 
efforts of Senators Benton and Linn, and the others of the 
Western contingent who were determined to settle the coun- 
try as an aid to rescuing it from the British. The price was 
scalps, graves by the way, and much hardship, but at last 
Oregon was won, and these men, women, and children with 
superb courage and stamina won it. 

On August 17th, in nine miles, after crossing Ham's Fork 
(he says Black's) they arrived at Black's Fork (the Ham's 
Fork of his narrative), still on the regular Oregon Trail, 
which made a detour to the south to reach Bridger's estab- 
lishment where rest and repairs could be had. Fremont did 
not go nearer than "a mile or two" to Bridger's where the 



138 Fremont and '49 

Shoshone woman departed, to join her relatives. On the 
19th Carson was sent ahead to Fort Hall to return with a 
small amount of provisions, while Fremont should go to 
Salt Lake, the party being now very low in supplies. They 
also had lost six or seven animals and Fremont hoped to 
supply their places as he proceeded. The trail he followed 
as nearly as I can trace it crossed the Muddy Fork of the 
Black, to Little Muddy, passing Cumberland of to-day, 
and from its head followed about the line of the Wyoming 
Western Railway. He obtained an observation at noon on 
the 20th which placed them in latitude 41° 39' 45". Appar- 
ently this would put him on the north fork of the Little 
Muddy, three or four miles south of the present town of 
Glencoe, Wyoming. Early maps, including Fremont's, 
are so defective in details of the topography of this locality 
that it is difficult to place the route with precision. It is 
not the course of the Oregon Trail of later years, which 
followed up Ham's Fork and went down by Sublette's 
Creek to the Bear River Valley, but as Fremont was on the 
Trail the change came later, unless this then was a cut-off. 
The main Trail did not come so far south as Bridger's fort 
originally, and doubtless as early as Fremont's journey 
had not yet settled down to the best route. They kept on 
up the creek to a steep climb to a pass with an altitude of 
8230 feet above the sea, and before camping went down the 
other side a distance, to the head of a branch of the Bear 
which he calls on his map Muddy Creek, but which must 
have been Twin Creek, on the route of the Oregon Short 
Line Railway, not far from the present town of Fossil. ^ 

In about four miles he came out into the main valley 
of Bear River, here three or four miles wide, and proceeded 
north, down the valley, halting for noon in about eight 

' Named from the great abundance here of remarkably preserved fish and 
vegetable remains found in the shales. Fremont discovered them on the way- 
over and regretted he could not stop several days. Similar ones are found 
nearer Green River — I picked them out of a railway cut in 1871. 



A Lake of Mystery 139 

miles more; and for night camping about two miles south of 
Smith's Fork; two miles south of the present Cokeville. 
An observation fixed this camp in latitude 42° 03' 47", which 
is correct, and longitude 111° 10' 47", which is a trifle too far 
west, Bear River at this point being cast of 111°. During 
the day they had passed an emigrant family travelling 
alone, which interested Fremont very much as indicating a 
better attitude of the Indians. They were now out of Mexi- 
can territory for the time being, as the 42d parallel was the 
boundary, and, he remarks, in the limits of the United States; 
but this would depend on how one regarded the status of the 
Oregon question. 

We were now entering [he says] a region which for us 
possessed a strange and extraordinary interest. We were upon 
the waters of the famous lake which forms a salient point among 
the remarkable geographical features of the country, and around 
which the vague and superstitious accounts of the trappers had 
thrown a delightful obscurity, which we anticipated pleasure 
in dispelling, but which, in the meantime, left a crowded field 
for the exercise of our imagination. 

In our occasional conversations with the few old hunters who 
had visited the region, it had been a subject of frequent specu- 
lation; and the wonders which they related were not the less 
agreeable because they were highly exaggerated and impossible. 

Hitherto this lake had been seen only by trappers who were 
wandering through the country in search of new beaver-streams, 
caring very little for geography; its islands had never been 
visited; and none were to be found who had entirely made the 
circuit of its shores; and no instrumental observations or geo- 
graphical survey, of any description, had ever been made any- 
where in the neighbouring region. It was generally supposed 
that it had no visible outlet ; but among the trappers, including 
those in my own camp, were many who believed that some- 
where on its surface was a terrible whirlpool, through which its 
waters found their way to the ocean by some subterranean 
communication. All these things had made a frequent subject 
of discussion in our desultory conversations around the fires at 



140 Fremont and '49 

night; and my own mind had become tolerably well filled 
with their indefinite pictures, and insensibly coloured with their 
romantic descriptions, which, in the pleasure of excitement, I 
was well disposed to believe, and half expected to realise. 

The route held steadily down the beautiful valley on the 
present route of the Oregon Short Line Railway, at a general 
elevation for this part of about 6400 feet, past (Jedediah) 
Smith's Fork and Thomas's Fork (evidently they did not 
know about Bear Lake), and on the 23d of August they 
passed more emigrants, large parties, the men and women 
and children who were to found new states on the shores of 
the Pacific. They also came upon several Shoshone Indians 
whose camp was not far off; a large village just down from 
the mountains. Fremont resolved to visit them. When he 
arrived within a mile of the village a single horseman 
emerged from it at full speed, followed quickly by others 
till the whole plain was filled with them, "charging down 
upon us with guns and naked swords, lances and bows-and- 
arrows; Indians entirely naked, and warriors fully dressed for 
war, with the long red streamers of their war-bonnets reaching 
nearly to the ground, all mingled together in a bravery of 
savage warfare. " This great excitement he soon discovered 
was caused by the flag he bore, which was an emblem of war 
with the Sioux when they came this way on a raid. An 
understanding was speedily reached, and the explorers made 
their camp, at a place indicated by the chief, near his own 
lodge. Eight horses were bought for blankets, beads, etc., 
to take the place of those which had died. Some berries, 
roots, and seeds were also purchased, among them an edible 
root called kooyah or tobacco root ( Valeriana edulis) which 
had so singular a taste and odour that Preuss was driven out 
of camp by his repugnance to them. 

The tribes west of the Rocky Mountains relied for food 
very considerably on grass seeds, roots, nuts of the pinyon, 
cactus fruits, and so on, and for that reason have often 



About Diggers 141 

been spoken of in terms of contempt by the whites, who 
admired the meat eating of the Sioux and other plains tribes 
and seemed for some reason to consider it a disgrace to eat 
seeds and roots and fruits, yet our own diet is composed to 
the extent probably of 75 per cent of a similar diet. Wheat 
is only a grass seed, also oats and rye; potatoes are such 
roots as these Indians used, and our tomatoes are no more 
dignified than cactus "apples" (prickly pear), and so on. 
Some of the grass seeds, notably one the Pai Utes eat called 
"Ahk, " it seemed to me would have been valuable for culti- 
vation had we not possessed others that were better. 

The Sioux ate meat because there were plenty of buffalo 
to furnish it ; it was their resource. The tribes beyond the 
Rocky Mountains eked out their deer and rabbit supply 
(the buffalo had gone as far as Green River and the head of the 
Snake, but by 1843 had ceased going there) by utilising the 
numerous very good seeds and roots, nuts and fruits, of their 
environment. They should be admired for wresting these 
things from a reluctant nature. Some of their progenitors 
practised irrigation and grew fine crops of maize long before 
the white man saw the continent; for the Moki (Hopi) are 
classed linguistically as Shoshonean and they and their 
ancestors have been farmers for many centuries. There- 
fore, when a tribe does not live entirely by the chase, it is 
hardly becoming in us to sneer at them, and consider them, 
because of a preponderating vegetable diet, the lowest beings 
on earth. I have known many Pai Utes, and they seemed to 
me, in spite of their leaning perforce to a vegetable diet, at 
least for portions of the year, to be quite as intelligent as 
most of the beings called human. But altogether the white 
man has not only generally been unjust in his estimate of 
the Indian and Indian character, but he has been foolish 
and irrational as well. Fremont, I am happy to say, seems 
to have been always very fair in his statements and estimates 
of the tribes he met with, though he also is biassed a trifle 
on the food question, thinking exclusive meat eaters a supe- 



142 Fremont and '49 

rior class. "Roots, seeds, and grass, every vegetable that 
affords any nourishment, and every living animal thing, 
insect or worm, they eat. Nearly approaching to the lower 
animal creation, their sole employment is to obtain food; 
and they are constantly occupied in a struggle to support 
existence. " As if the food quest had not from the beginning 
been the man -animal's chief struggle; as if millions to-day 
are no more than pack-horses merely to obtain sustenance ! 
As for eating worms, snails are common food in Europe, and 
I have seen ladies at the dinner table pick them out of 
the shells with relish. We eat shrimps, to match the 
red man's grasshoppers, and the bill of fare may thus be 
paralleled all along the line. Furthermore there are some 
who claim that butchering animals and eating them is not 
the most desirable form of subsistence, nor yet the highest, 
and for law and order within his own precincts the American 
Indian could shame the white man. 

At the most northern point which Bear River reaches, 
just before it makes its sudden bend to the south to complete 
its great horseshoe, are some remarkable soda springs. ^ Fre- 
mont came to them on the 25th of August and with his usual 
painstaking methods he stopped for examination. There 
are many springs here charged with carbonate of lime and 
of magnesia, and with the sulphates of these and their 
chlorides, according to Fremont's analysis which was quoted 
as late as 1877 in one of Dr. Hay den's reports. Many of 
the springs come up from the bottom of the river with such 
force that they bubble several inches above the surface, 
at least Farnham, in 1839, said so, but the most noted is near 
the margin of the water, a miniature geyser of hot water 
shooting up to a maximum height of three feet. Dr. Peale, 
in 1877, says two feet. It is accompanied by a subterranean 
noise which so suggested a steamboat that it was called 
Steamboat Spring, as, indeed, Fremont says it had been 

' Most of the springs are cold. The Steamboat had a temperature of 88° F. 
according to Peale (1877) ^iid 87° F. according to Fremont. 




<& — 



V- f -5 






03 C >_ 



C X a, 



The Beer Springs 143 

before his visit. Famham says, "what is called The Steam- 
boat Spring."' 

Bonneville visited the locality and described the Beer 
Springs as tasting like that Teutonic beverage. He said his 
men were exceedingly fond of the water, but the Indians 
would not drink it and tried to dissuade the men from doing 
so as they considered it injurious. Fremont's observations 
gave the position as latitude 42° 39' 57", longitude 1 1 i°46'oo", 
with an altitude of 5840 feet. The Oregon Short Line gives 
5779 feet. Not far beyond the Beer Springs, the regular 
Oregon Trail turned to the west, heading for the Portneuf 
River and Fort Hall, but Fremont, though almost out of 
provisions, had no idea of giving up his intention of surveying 
Salt Lake, or at least making a careful examination of it. 
His energy and endurance appear always to have been equal 
to any task, and he was never seeking an easy job. To 
make the prospects for food a trifle brighter he dispatched 
one of the men named Lee to Fort Hall with a note telling 
Carson to come on as fast as possible with a pack-horse laden 
with whatever he could secure in the way of supplies. 

Fortune threw in their way two well-grown calves, lost 
by some emigrant party, and as no owner could be dis- 
covered for them in the caravans which were passed, they 
were driven along as reserve food with which to make the 
prospective circumnavigation of the Salt Lake. They were 
soon obliged to kill one to satisfy the pressing necessity for 
something to eat. Indians were met occasionally but they 
were poorly supplied with food, and were no great help in 
this respect, especially as the men were unaccustomed to a 
pure root diet. Cutting across some ridges the party de- 
scended on August 26th to the river again, their noon halt 
having been opposite Sheep Rock, the extreme end of the 
high ridge around which Bear River makes the turn to the 
south, in a rugged canyon of basalt. At sunset camp was 

' Travels in tlie Great Western Prairies, the Anahnac and Rocky Mountains, 
and Oregon Territory, by Thomas J. Famham, 1843. 



144 Fremont and '49 

made on the right bank of the river opposite three lodges 
of Snake (Shoshone) Indians from whom more of their roots 
were obtained, among which was one of sweet, pleasant taste, 
which Fremont afterwards found was the famous "kamas" 
of the Columbia Valley. There was little which escaped 
the keen, intelligent observation of this explorer, and he 
always presents clear, sensible descriptions. He has often 
been adversely criticised for many things, frequently with 
no foundation in fact, but he is seldom given the full credit 
which ought to be his for the close, indefatigable attention 
he applied to all things which fell within his pathway on his 
expeditions. 

The Lieutenant was not set on following any particular 
trail and on the 28th he left one they had been on for some 
time as they worked their way down the river valley, and 
which he thought would probably have led by a good road 
to Salt Lake, and crossing some deep ravines, in about an 
hour came to the river again in "a valley about five or six 
miles wide, between mountain ranges, which, about thirty 
miles below, appeared to close up and terminate the valley, 
leaving for the river only a very narrow pass or cafion, 
behind which we imagined that we should find the broad 
waters of the lake"; in other words he was in the head of 
Cache Valley, but the place where he thought the river left 
the valley probably was the entrance into it of Little Bear 
River. Bear River itself when half-way through the valley 
swings sharply to the north-west and cleaves a way through 
mountains which Fremont could not see from his position. 

On August 29th they met with a small party of Shoshones 
on another trail which they had discovered (these were the old 
Indian highways of course), who, by signs, indicated that it 
was a good trail leading into a broad valley which ran south- 
ward. They found it as the Shoshones had said. It led 
through a pass they called Standing Rock because of a 
large rock which stood upright near the middle of the stream 
at the entrance, in latitude 42° 07' 18". Coming into a more 



Range of the Buffalo 145 

open country they at length saw a Shoshone village and 
stopped for a time to trade with the people. An obser- 
vation gave latitude 42° 14' 22". 

The band had no game, and not a great stock of roots, 
and Fremont would not tempt them to sell what they had, 
feeling that they had more need for food than he. He makes 
some interesting and valuable remarks concerning the range 
of the buffalo at this point in his report, and speaks of the 
extraordinary rapidity with which the buffalo were then 
disappearing owing to the vast scale of destruction by the 
fur hunters. The fur companies annually traded in 90,000 
skins, and this represented only a part of those killed. 

With inconsiderable exceptions, the business of the American 
trading-post is carried on in their skins; every year the Indian 
villages make new lodges, for which the skin of the buffalo fur- 
nishes the material ; and in that portion of the country where 
they are still found, the Indians derive their entire support from 
them, and slaughter them with a thoughtless and abominable 
extravagance. Like the Indians themselves, they have been a 
characteristic of the Great West; and as, like them, they are 
visibly diminishing, it will be interesting to throw a glance back- 
ward through the last twenty years, and give some account of 
their former distribution through the country, and the limit of 
their western range. 

The information is derived principally from Mr. Fitzpatrick, 
supported by my own personal knowledge and acquaintance 
with the country. Our knowledge does not go farther back than 
the spring of 1824, at which time the buffalo were spread in 
immense numbers over the Green River and Bear River valleys, 
and through all the country lying between the Colorado, or 
Green river of the Gulf of California, and Lewis's fork of the 
Columbia river; the meridian of Fort Hall then forming the 
western limit of their range. The buffalo then remained for 
many years in that country, and frequently moved down the 
valley of the Columbia, on both sides of the river as far as the 
Fishing Falls. Below this point they never descended in any 
numbers. About the year 1834 or 1835 they began to diminish 



146 Fremont and '49 

very rapidly, and continued to decrease until 1838 or 1840, 

when, with the country we have just described, they entirely 
abandoned all the waters of the Pacific north of Lewis's fork of 
the Columbia. At that time, the Flathead Indians were in the 
habit of finding their buffalo on the heads of Salmon river, and 
other streams of the Columbia ; but now they never meet with 
them farther west than the three forks of the Missouri, or the 
plains of the Yellow-stone river. 

Escalante killed buffalo on Green River in 1776, and what 
is undoubtedly a pictograph of a buffalo was found on a 
cliff wall in Southern Utah near the Arizona line, evidence, 
perhaps, that they once reached as far west as the place where 
it was discovered near the town of Kanab. They never 
extended so far to the westward in the basin of the Colorado, 
Fremont believes, as in the valley of the Columbia. His 
observations and conclusions on this subject are so valuable 
that I quote further: 

In travelling through the country west of the Rocky moun- 
tains, observation readily led me to the impression that the 
buffalo had, for the first time, crossed that range to the waters 
of the Pacific only a few years prior to the period we are consider- 
ing ; and in this opinion I am sustained by Mr. Fitzpatrick, and 
the older trappers in that country. In the region west of the 
Rocky mountains, we never meet with any of the ancient ves- 
tiges which, throughout all the country lying upon their eastern 
waters, are found in the great highways, continuous for hundreds 
of miles, always several inches, and sometimes several feet in 
depth, which the buffalo have made in crossing from one river 
to another, or in traversing the mountain ranges. The Snake 
Indians, more particularly those low down upon Lewis's fork, 
have always been very grateful to the American trappers, for 
the great kindness (as they frequently expressed it) which they 
did to them, in driving the buffalo so low down the Columbia 
river. 

To-day this once numerous animal can be found only 
in several private herds, or sparsely in the extreme wilds 



A Rubber Boat Again 147 

of North-western Canada. The hide hunters and the set- 
tling of the Western eountry terminated its existence. When 
conditions change, when environment changes, life forms 
change with them; species arise, flourish, and disappear on 
the plastic surface of the globe. 

The Indians informed Fremont that he would arrive at 
the big salt water in "two sleeps" travelHng south, but the 
trail they were on turning sharply to the northward, he 
continued on it, thinking that eventually it would lead them 
right. On the last day of August they came to the Roseaux 
or Reed River, now on the maps as the Malade. The trail 
had been taking them toward Fort Hall but they then did 
not know it. The noon halt was in latitude 41° 59' 31", with 
an altitude of 4670 feet. They turned south and followed 
down the Roseaux, disappointed at every little rise not to 
see the lake, but they travelled a considerable distance 
southward between the Roseaux and the Bear before they 
began to distinguish some isolated mountains resembling 
islands, which they were afterward found to be. The 
party camped on September 1st about three hundred yards 
above the junction of the Roseaux with the Bear. 

As on the first expedition, Fremont had an india-rubber 
boat eighteen feet long, the sides formed of two air cylinders 
connected with others forming the bow and stem. This they 
now inflated and ferried the party across the Roseaux 
(Malade River), which was too deep to ford. Expecting 
in the course of the day to come to the lake, Fre- 
mont got into the boat, when the goods were safely over, 
and with Basil Lajeunesse paddled down Bear River, the 
others proceeding as usual. The river was deep and wide 
with a slow current. Progress was not what Fremont wished 
it to be. They surprised at one place several families of 
"Root Diggers" (Utcs) and soon made friends with them, 
and Fremont promised to send back some men with goods to 
trade. 

A short distance below this, it was determined to aban- 



148 Fremont and '49 

don the circumlocutory river and strike for the caravan. 
The boat and effects were hidden on the bank and the two 
men started across the low flats to which the preceding arable 
plain at this point changed. They had walked fifteen miles 
following the track of their party, and the sun was going 
down, before they caught sight of the camp-fires. Those who 
have never been in this situation can hardly appreciate the 
wonderful cheer of the red blaze in the distance when it means 
rest , food , and friends . Fremont , who was always imaginative 
even with his scientific temperament, remarks on this cheer- 
ing quality and says that to them, in their present situation, 
' ' after a hard march in a region of novelty, approaching the 
debouches of a river, in a lake of almost fabulous reputation, 
it was doubly so." 

Men were sent back for the boat next day, and in the 
afternoon they went on three miles down Bear River. 
They were getting into the marshes. All was so low and 
flat with dense rushes and canes and willows that they could 
not see more than a few yards at a time. Thousands of 
water-fowl flew about; at the sound of a gun rising "with a 
noise like distant thimder. " The river spread into several 
branches and a camp had to be made, which had the com- 
pensation of a bountiful supper of ducks, geese, and plover, 
but I may say that if the geese were as tough as some of the 
species I have tried to eat, they were a treat only to the 
starving. With his customary energy Fremont got an 
observation at night, with the result of latitude 41° 30' 22", 
which is very close, and longitude 112° 19' 30". The longi- 
tude of the mouth of the river scaled from a map is 112° 30', 
but they were not yet at the mouth. The next morning, 
September 4th, Kit Carson, with the ordered supplies, rode 
into the camp. How did he find it? It was easy: as he 
knew where they were heading for, all he had to do to come 
to their exact location was to keep on east from Fort Hall 
till he met with their trail. Even a blind man could follow 
such a trail as this large party made, and the track of that 



Ogden Hot Springs 149 

precious cannon would surely identify it even had there been 
in the country another party of this character. Fitzpatrick 
had not yet reached Fort Hall; the guest -traveller Dwight 
had, and was going on to Vancouver; and provisions were 
scarce: this was the news. 

They returned five miles up the Bear and with difficulty 
crossed the animals to the left or east bank. The men were 
put over in the boat. They were now certain of the close 
proximity of the lake but still could see nothing of its water, 
and turned their course in the direction of an isolated butte 
or mountain perceived twelve miles south, from which they 
expected to get a view. They speedily got into the mud- 
flats and were obliged to make for higher ground on the east, 
at the foot of the Wasatch, where the lake runs rather close 
against it. Here they came upon a good trail, the regular 
Indian highway which invariably existed all over the Far 
West in the most advantageous positions. If Fremont had 
induced one of the despised "Diggers" to come with him as 
guide he could have saved himself all this wallowing in the 
mire, but even if he had wanted to, he might not have been 
able to persuade one. Sometimes Indians would not go with 
a party on any terms, but they would nearly always, in the 
sign language, indicate the best way, and it then remained 
for the traveller to follow the sign directions — not always 
successfully. 

The party soon came to the Hot Springs, five or six miles 
north of the present city of Ogden. Here the trail turned 
to the left to go up a river, coming through a canyon which 
even then is mentioned as Weber's Fork, so he turned toward 
the lake which still he had not seen. It was not before the 
morning of September 6th, when he tried again to reach the 
solitary butte, that he got his first view of the fascinating 
spread of water. "We reached the butte without any 
difficulty, and ascending to the summit, immediately at our 
feet beheld the object of our anxious search — the waters of 
the inland Sea stretching in still and solitary grandeur far 



150 Fremont and '49 

beyond the limit of our vision," And here his enthusiasm 
leads him to make a remark for which, afterwards, he was 
ridiculed by a certain historian. He says: "It was one of 
the great points of the exploration : and as we looked eagerly 
over the lake in the first emotions of excited pleasure, I am 
doubtful if the followers of Balboa felt more enthusiasm 
when, from the heights of the Andes, they saw for the first 
time the Great Western Ocean." He was accused of ridic- 
ulously likening himself to Balboa, but it is clear that what 
he said was modest and entirely proper and that he had no 
thought of a comparison. 

The lake was practically unexplored and its character- 
istics unknown. No scientific man before Fremont had 
visited its shores. His pleasure at the novelty of the situa- 
tion was justifiable. "To travellers," he continues, "so long 
shut up among mountain ranges a sudden view over the 
expanse of silent waters had in it something sublime." 
They found it necessary to make their exploration base on 
Weber's Fork, as no place nearer the lake was suitable. 
A corral was built on the edge of the river for the animals, 
and a small timber fort for those who were to remain on 
guard. The rubber boat was made ready. The extra 
provisions Carson had brought were now consumed, which 
rendered it desirable to reduce the company, and seven men 
were immediately sent on to Fort Hall. They lost their 
way, scattered, and finally straggled in from every direction 
and distance, some picked up and guided to safety by Indians. 

Preuss, Carson, Bernier, and Basil Lajeunesse were those 
chosen to go with Fremont on the boat expedition, "the 
first," says Fremont, "ever attempted on this inland sea." 
In this matter he was mistaken. He did not know that 
four of Ashley's men, as already stated, circumnavigated 
the lake in the spring of 1826. It was now found that the 
boat was not as strong as that they had used on the Platte, 
being only pasted instead of sewed together. This gave 
the prospective navigation of deep water a decidedly serious 



Disappointment Island 151 

aspect. To make the tour of Salt Lake to-day, in a good boat, 
would be nothing. It is the first exploratory event, that 
which has in it the element of mystery, which is difficult. 
Nobody knows. When everybody knows, correct action is 
easy, although it may consist in doing exactly the hard work 
the first party did. The boat went pleasantly down the river, 
but it was discovered that two of the air tanks leaked so 
badly that the efforts of one man at the air-pump were re- 
quired to keep the craft afloat. Progress was not rapid and 
a camp was necessary before arriving at the mouth of the 
river, which they did the next day, September 9th, 1843, 
only to find the channel so shallow that they were obliged 
to get overboard and drag the boat along over the mud into 
which they sank up to their knees, thereby stirring up the 
ooze, which had a disagreeable odoiir. 

At length they came suddenly to a small black ridge on 
the bottom, beyond which the water was immediately salt, 
deepening gradually with a firm sandy bottom. Climbing on 
board, they pushed out on the wide waters of the, to them, 
unknown inland sea. There was a considerable swell on, 
with patches of white foam drifting southward to recall the 
whirlpool stories. The water became deep and clear green. 
The spray that dashed in turned to a crust of salt at once. 
A strong breeze came up the lake. White caps were formed. 
The boat was slow but rode well. One man kept the bellows 
(air pump) going to keep the cylinders inflated, and at last 
a successful landing was effected on an island, for which 
they had headed, now perpetuating the event by bear- 
ing the name of Fremont. He called it Disappointment 
Island, because he found it desert instead of fertile as he 
had expected. 

They ascended to the summit of the island, a bare rocky 
peak 800 feet above the level of the lake surface, which 
Fremont fixed at 4200 feet above the sea, 4218 being the 
figures of to-day. From here he obtained a very fair idea of 
the configuration of the shores of the lake and he made a 



152 Fremont and '49 

map which is not far wrong. He longed to thoroughly 
explore the lake, and the neighbouring country, but the time 
allowed for his travels, as well as his food supply, would not 
permit. A camp was made on the island, where they spent 
the night, and Fremont took observations for latitude and 
longitude. With large cheery fires they made themselves 
comfortable, and "lay down, for the first time in a long 
journey, in perfect security." The night was clear but a 
rising wind caused a roaring surf to pound against the 
beach, and altogether Fremont marks this down as one of 
the most interesting nights of the whole expedition. 

In the morning the surf was still breaking heavily, the lake 
was " dark and agitated, " and they got off as soon as possible, 
though Fremont did not forget to take a bucket of the water 
far from land dilution with him from which to make salt. He 
also made several soundings as they went, but as the paddling 
had to stop, causing loss of headway, he concluded not to 
add the extra labour to what was already severe for those 
working the boat. At last they made a landing immediately 
under the butte from which their first view of the lake was 
obtained, just in time for Fremont to climb to its summit, 
500 feet above the lake, for a meridian observation. Preuss 
and Lajeunesse set off for the camp, nine miles away, the 
latter to fetch horses to transport the boat and utensils. 
The gale increased, and it was fortunate that, with their crazy 
vessel, they had succeeded in making the crossing from the 
island while the waters were yet comparatively calm. On 
September nth they remained in camp and Fremont boiled 
down his pail of salt water, getting from the five gallons, 
fourteen pints of very fine white salt, a portion, of which 
was analysed, showing 97.80% of common salt (sodium 
chloride). The rest was chloride of calcium, chloride of 
magnesia, sulphate of soda, and 1.12% of sulphate of lime. 

It is impossible for the human body to sink in the waters 
of Great Salt Lake but nevertheless it is highly dangerous 
to go beyond one's depth on account of the possibility of 



The Briny Deep 153 

strangling. A single, unexpected mouthful of the brine 
might undo a good swimmer, and as for non-swimmers, they 
are as likely to float feet up as any other way. Indeed it is 
difficult to keep one's equilibrium and swimming in ordinary 
sea water is much simpler. The first time I bathed in Salt 
Lake was in 1876, at Black Rock, where two or three 
rough dressing shanties had been built, each supplied with a 
pail of fresh water to dash off the salt, which if allowed to 
dry on one's skin is imcomfortable. When I visited the lake 
the last time, in 1907, I found an extensive bathing establish- 
ment at Saltair, twenty miles from Salt Lake City. It is a 
great resort. As nobody's head can be allowed to go under 
water, the men who are smokers enjoy a cigar while bathing. 
There is another bathing establishment at Garfield. The 
lake fluctuates in depth and extent, in cycles. The area is 
fifty miles by about seventy-five, or about 1750 square miles. ^ 
The Southern Pacific Railway now cuts across from near 
Fremont's base camp to the tip of Promontory Point and 
thence across the west arm due west on a high trestlework, 
the water in places being forty feet deep. Part of the way 
is on filling of earth and rock. 

One of the plans of the expedition had now been fulfilled ; 
the mysterious salt sea had been visited, navigated, exam- 
ined to some extent, and its water tested. While the time 
was all too short for anything like a careful exploration, 
nevertheless a scientist had now viewed it, estimated it, 
and marked it down on paper. It was Fremont's description 
of the lake and valley which led to a very important 
event in the development of this region. Brigham Young, 
because of this description, determined in 1847 to lead his 
followers, the Mormons, or Latter Day Saints, into this 
then foreign territory and set up for themselves the State of 
Deseret. And here came in an important charge of great 
error in one of Fremont's statements. Brigham said that 

'Seethe Encyclopedia Britannica, nth cd., article "Great Salt Lake," 
for an excellent description. 



154 



Fremont and '49 



Fremont described the lake as being in one part salt and 
in another fresh, and that he made a mistake in this, 
having come to Utah Lake and believed it to be a part of 
Salt Lake, which Fremont denied.^ Brigham also com- 
plained that Fremont called it a fertile country when it was 
in reality a desert. The answer to this is the aspect of 
Salt Lake Valley to-day : a rich garden in the midst of the 
mountains. 

'It is proper to call attention here to the statement at p. 274 of 
Fremont's Report, and page 388, of his Memoirs, where he says: " The Utah 
is the southern limb of the Great Salt Lake; and thus we had seen that 
remarkable sheet of water both at its northern and southern extremity." 
Utah Lake on Fremont's map of the 1843-44 route, is connected by a narrow 
passage with Salt Lake. Joseph Walker, who knew Salt Lake well, was with 
Fremont at Utah Lake. See also in Chapter XII., in advance, a reference to 
this subject. 




CHAPTER VIII 

TO FORT VANCOUVER 

Eating Horse Meat — The Plains of Snake River — Arrive at Fort Hall — First 
Waggon through to the Columbia — The Three Great Falls of Snake 
River — Fort Boise and Monsieur Payette — Across the Blue Mountains — 
Marcus Whitman's Mission — The Methodist Mission — Music from a 
Sawmill — Fort Vancouver — Plan for a Circuitous Return. 

TURNING their backs on the Great Salt Lake, the 
party, having now only "Digger" roots, yampa, and 
camas to eat with their coffee, were desirous of speedily 
arriving at Fort Hall, or of meeting the men who meanwhile 
had been ordered down from the main supply train with 
provisions. Practically the same route was followed up Bear 
River and the Malade which had brought them to the lake, 
except, of course, the deviations due to lack of knowledge. 
Carson had killed a number of sea-gulls near the lake and 
these were a more or less palatable addition to supper at 
their camp on "Clear Creek." On the 13th of September, 
the next day, more hot springs were found, and that night 
they camped on Bear River south of the canyon, called The 
Gates, by which it comes through the Malade Range into 
this valley, in latitude 41° 42' 43" and longitude 112° 05' 
12", immediately below a "cut off," the pass by which the 
Utah Northern Railway afterwards got through to the fertile 
Cache YaWey. Both the valley of Malade River and that 
of Bear River contain a wide extent of irrigable lands, now 
under prosperous cultivation, largely by the Mormons who 
first settled there, and Fremont duly noted the fact. 

A gun was fired at intervals to inform the expected relief 

155 



156 Fremont and '49 

party of the camp's position, but they did not arrive. The 
next evening Fremont, seeing that all hands were famished 
and dejected, gave permission to butcher a fat young horse, 
one of those recently purchased from the Snake Indians, 
and a substantial supper soon put new life into the camp. 
Neither Lieutenant Fremont nor Preuss, however, could 
bring themselves to eat of the horse, "feeling as much 
saddened as if a crime had been committed." It is well 
known now that horse flesh is wholesome and good eating 
and no more criminal than eating beef; yet it is exceedingly 
difficult to overcome the fixed habits of generations. The 
horse, like the dog, is closer to our hearts than other animals ; 
they seem to be our friends, therefore the sense of cannibalism 
if they are eaten. I confess that I am not sensitive in this 
direction and once, many years ago, tried to shoot a wild 
colt on the plains of Arizona, though we then had no need 
specially for meat as we had plenty of bacon, but I believed 
a tender horse steak would be an addition, and wished to 
see what it was like. However, the band was too wild, and, 
winding me, sped off like a railway train, one behind the 
other, a powerful stallion in the lead and the coveted colt 
bringing up the rear. 

The party met some Indians the next day, one of whom 
had shot an antelope, which was eagerly purchased for some 
powder and balls. This was on September 15th and that 
evening they camped early on the left bank of the Roseaux 
(Malade), having for a time been on the right or west side. 
During the supper, Tabeau, of the supply train, galloped 
in with the good news that Fitzpatrick was encamped close 
by with a fine stock of provisions, even to some butter. 
Butter never tastes so delicious as when a little of it gets 
into an explorer's camp after several months without any. 
It then becomes evident why the European race sets such 
high value on this article of diet. Early the next morning 
they were again on the road up the valley, which was parted 
from later in the day by way of a long ravine leading into 



Plains of Snake River 157 

the mountains to a pass over to Snake River ; that is to what 
they called Pannack River, a tributary of the Snake, and 
one of the routes to Fort Hall, another being by the Port- 
neuf branch, just to the north, on the other side of the 
Bannock Range. On later maps the name of the river is 
given Bannock; and this is probably correct — after the 
Bannock tribe. ' 

In leaving the particular district which so deeply had 
interested him, Lieutenant Fremont stated: "The bottoms 
are extensive, water excellent, timber sufficient, the soil good 
and well adapted to the grains and grasses suited to such an 
elevated region." He also commended the bunch grass, 
which everybody was free to commend at a later period 
from their own profitable experience. No more nutritious 
grass ever grew. On September 1 7th they reached the main 
stem of the Pannack River and camped that night in lati- 
tude 42° 44' 40", longitude 112° 29' 52". The following 
morning they "came out upon the plains of the Columbia," 
in other words, of Snake River, and beheld the "Three 
Buttes" (which he speaks of again as the little mountains) 
forty-five miles away. These, while not very high, are 
conspicuous landmarks of the locality. When Thomas J. 
Famham passed this way, down the Portneuf, in 1839, he 
also speaks of coming out on the Snake Plains in sight of the 
"Trois Butes, " which, he says, were fifteen or twenty miles 
east of Fort Hall, but he does not mean the same buttes that 
Fremont does. His Trois Butes were the Three Tetons, 
mountains of imposing grandeur, which he said were 12,000 
feet above the sea.^ 

Continuing up the valley of Snake River, on the left or 
east bank, they crossed the Portneuf River and presently 
arrived at Fort Hall where Talbot, and the others who 

» The Bannock Range was named by one of Hayden's survey parties. 

'The Grand Teton, or highest peak, is 13,747. The Three Tetons, now 
the Teton Range, were one of the most conspicuous landmarks in the Far 
West and one of the earliest known. The range is in Wyoming. 



158 Fremont and '49 

had preceded Fitzpatrick, were encamped, not far from 
the post. The Fremont party camped with them. In the 
morning dayHght was ushered in with a snowstorm, which 
did not cease, and it made the atmosphere disagreeable as 
the temperature was not low enough to be dry. Fremont 
went on horseback to the fort, where he bought from the 
officer in charge several horses and five oxen, one of the 
latter being killed to supply the men with much needed 
food. After one has gone for weeks with reduced amount of 
food, the system requires for a time more than the custom- 
mary daily allowance, and one ox does not go far in a hungry 
band such as Fremont's men had become. There were snow 
and ice for several days, which, in view of the fact that it 
promised to be difficult to obtain sufficient food for so large 
a party, determined Fremont on sending back a contingent 
to the States. Indeed, some of the men thought the service 
more severe than they had bargained for, and when the 
subject was broached, eleven proved to be quite ready to 
turn their faces homeward and cross the mountains before 
winter should set in. 

Among these was Basil Lajeunesse, Fremont's favourite, 
but it was not because this man wanted to go, but because 
his presence was required at home during the coming winter, 
that he departed. He joins Fremont once more on his 
third expedition and never again sees the land of his fathers. 

Fort Hall, it will be recalled, was founded by the energetic 
and redoubtable Wyeth, but the Hudson Bay Company, 
and other rivals, overwhelmed him and he was compelled 
to sell out. It was nine miles above the Portneuf, on the 
left bank of the Snake in a beautiful and fertile bottom. It 
was built in 1834.^ 0^^ ^^ the most important stations of 
white men on the Oregon Trail, it was the first of the Hudson 
Bay posts, coming from the east, and was almost like a 
frontier custom-house. That is to say, it was more or less of 
an inquisitorial barrier to any trader or trapper not of the 

' Farnham says 1832; Chittenden, 1834, which is the correct date. 



Fort Hall 159 

H. B. Company. The ordinary emigrants for Oregon and 
California could not well be directly interfered with, so 
far as passing on was concerned, for that would have been 
an open and flagrant violation of the mutual agreement 
between the British and American Governments, but ob- 
stacles were placed in the way such as could not easily be 
detected. 

Famham, describing his arrival in 1839 exclaims, "and 
before us rose the white battlements of Fort Hall." This 
fort was built of adobe. Lieutenant Fremont remarks 
that it was about the same in construction as the other forts 
he had seen, except that more wood was used. He gives 
its distance from Westport (Kansas City) by the Oregon 
Trail as 1323 miles. 

At this place the emigrants, up to three years before 
Fremont's passage — that is, up to 1840 — were obliged to leave 
their waggons, owing to the more rugged character of the 
topography beyond, over which the trail was forced to lead. 
The famous Marcus Whitman, so-called Saviour of Oregon, 
attempted in 1836, when on his way with his bride to the 
Columbia, to take a waggon farther than Fort Hall, the 
first trial of this kind, although he had found the greatest 
difficulty in getting it even that far. One of the axles 
broke, whereupon he made a sort of cart out of the back 
wheels, and loaded upon it the fore wheels and axle, and thus 
continued. He succeeded in reaching with the cart Fort 
Boise, 300 miles farther west, but there he abandoned it. 
In 1840, Dr. Robert Newell, who had been in the mountains 
as early as 1829, took for his pay as guide to some mission- 
aries their two discarded waggons. He later concluded him- 
self to try to take a waggon to the Columbia, and with two 
others of the same mind, also with waggons, he started. The 
tall sage-brush, for part of the way, was the greatest obstacle; 
they reached their destination, without the waggon boxes, 
which they had thrown away.' 

' George H. Himes in Kansas Historical Collections, vol. xii, 191 1-12, p. 267. 



i6o Fremont and '49 

The Oregon emigration from the United States was 
making an impression on that region, but Senator Benton 
contended that 

it was not an act of government leading the people and pro- 
tecting them, but, like all the other great emigrations and 
settlements of that race [Anglo-Saxon] on our continent, it was 
the act of the people, going forward without government aid or 
countenance, estabHshing their possession, and compelHng the 
government to follow with its shield and spread it over them. 
So far as the action of the government was concerned, it 
operated to endanger our title to the Columbia, to prevent 
emigration, and to incur the loss of the country.* 

The heavily beaten Oregon Trail, in this year of 1843, 
was testimony to the success of Benton and the circle to 
hasten the settlement of Oregon by American farmers and 
business men. In his report on this expedition, which was 
written in Washington in March, 1845, Lieutenant Fremont 
recommends the establishment of a military post at this 
place to protect the American emigrants from the Indians. 
This was before the status of the region had been per- 
manently settled, but it indicates that the circle had little 
doubt as to the final adjustment. 

On the 226. of September (1843) farewells were said to 
the late companions who were to retrace their steps, but 
the officer in charge of Fort Hall is not mentioned in this 
connection, and the Lieutenant led his remaining force off 
down the valley of Snake River, arriving two days later at 
noon at the American Falls, the first of the three beautiful 
cataracts for which the region is noted. The others are 
called the Salmon (or Fishing) Falls and Shoshone Falls, 
respectively. The last is by far the finest, and it has been 
spoken of by competent judges as superior to Niagara. In 
a certain element of desolate grandeur and picturesque- 
ness, it is, perhaps, more attractive, but, while higher in its 

^ Benton's Thirty Years, vol. ii., p. 469. 







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Shoshone Falls i6i 

vertical drop, It lacks the wide horizontal span of Niagara. 
But it is like comparing two diamonds of the first water. 
Shoshone Falls, with its sheer descent of about 200 feet, 
after preliminary plunges of 125, set in the midst of the 
broad, forbidding lava plain (see opposite picture), in a 
black canyon, is a sight worth going a long distance to see, 
and I was deeply impressed by it. When I was there it was 
the end of May, and the lava plain was carpeted with 
flowers, the air was like champagne, and the view of the 
encircling snow-clad ranges, especially in the very early 
morning ride to the Falls, was enchanting. The Salmon 
River, Lost River, Saw Tooth, Goose Creek, Bruno, Pahsime- 
roy, and other mountains stood white against the blue sky 
in their several directions, and I thought at the time that 
nowhere had I beheld a more superb panorama of peaks. 

The next day the road led the Fremont party down the 
valley along the river, which was full of rapids and small 
falls, the last four miles palisaded. In four more miles the 
following day they came to a creek which tumbled so rapidly 
down its roclcy bed that it was named Fall Creek. The road 
along the river bluffs was occasionally very bad, and when 
they saw a plain waggon trail leading up this Fall Creek — 
that is, south — Fremont followed it, and discovered that they 
were on the track of a division of the waggon party with which 
they had encamped at Elm Grove just after leaving Kansas 
City. This was the Chiles party, bound for the Sacramento 
Valley with a fine equipment, including a mill. The outfit 
had been divided and the mill and much else was proceeding 
by a more southern route under the competent guidance 
of Joseph Walker. Meanwhile Chiles himself with ten or 
twelve men had gone ahead by way of the Malheur and 
Pitt rivers, with the idea of returning with fresh animals 
and supplies. The Lieutenant had probably learned these 
things at Fort Hall, though he does not say so. 

As he did not wish to go in a California direction after 
the travellers, he swung back to the Snake, which he reached 



i62 Fremont and '49 

without trouble, and camped that night on the small tribu- 
tary from the south called Raft River. The whole country 
was now so rugged that the grass was scarce, especially 
along the Trail where the emigrants had been, and so also 
were desirable camping places. In addition, the way was 
extremely hard on the animals which pulled the carts. 
There were steep, rocky ascents and descents, the men had to 
help each cart up some of the short, sharp pulls, and the 
whole process was fatiguing all round and made progress 
slow. On September 27th, therefore, at Raft River camp, 
the company was divided much as before, with Fitzpatrick 
left in charge of the slow train, while Lieutenant Fremont, 
with his chosen few, should be free to reconnoitre. 

Kit Carson remained with Fremont, and when they 
camped that night at Swamp Creek he mentioned that some 
fourteen years before he had seen three or four buffalo here, 
two of which he killed for his party, which was at the starv- 
ing point. This, I believe, is the most western limit of the 
buffalo that can be authenticated by an eye-witness, though 
there is evidence that they once went as far as the Blue 
Mountains of Oregon, and even to the foot of the Sierra 
Nevada. Goose Creek on the 28th gave them some trouble, 
but altogether the road was an improvement on what had 
preceded, but one day it was this way, and another that 
way, for they were travelling across the lava sheet which 
in some past age had spread so remarkably over a vast area. 
They camped on Rock Creek. They were now approaching 
Shoshone Falls, and on September 30th they followed the 
road, sometimes at a distance from the river, which runs in 
its canyon, and near evening they turned back to the river, 
on the trail of some waggons, to camp on the top of the 
escarpment. Opposite the camp a subterranean river broke 
from the cliffs and plunged to the bottom. This remarkable 
stream is not very far below Shoshone Falls, so that he had 
missed a sight he would greatly have enjoyed. "A melan- 
choly and strange looking country," he remarks, " one of 



Fishing Falls 163 

fracture, and violence and fire." An ox they had driven 
thus far was killed here, and the bountiful supper its beef 
afforded removed to some extent, no doubt, the strange 
and forbidding aspect of the surroundings. When one is 
terribly hungry, especially with accumulated hunger, a scene 
may look desolate and forbidding that to a well-fed and 
rested person would appear merely romantic. The observa- 
tions placed this camp in latitude 42° 38' 44", longitude 
114° 25' 04". 

A climb down to the river on October 1st was made. The 
rubber boat was taken down, inflated, and the Lieutenant 
crossed and scaled the opposite cliff the 45 feet necessary 
to reach the mouth of the subterranean river, where he made 
his usual lucid notes, given in his report. The total height 
of the canyon wall was about 200 feet at this place. In the 
afternoon they proceeded down the river with their train 
still on the south side and camped at night at the third falls, 
the Fishing or Salmon Falls, a "series of cataracts with very 
inclined planes." Several lodges of Shoshone Indians were 
pitched nearby, "unusually gay savages, fond of loud 
laughter." All Indians are gay, as a rule, but they maintain 
a grave demeanor when with strangers. These Indians, 
and most of the bands below, lived almost entirely on salmon, 
which at that time mounted the river thus far in prodigious 
numbers. Some dried salmon was purchased. "We are 
encamped" says the Lieutenant, "immediately on the river 
bank, and with the salmon jumping up out of the water, and 
Indians paddling about in boats made of rushes, or laughing 
around the fires, the camp to-night has quite a lively ap- 
pearance." The black precipices for the time had dis- 
appeared, and a somewhat more cheerful landscape was 
immediately around them. 

There were many Indians strung along the river as they 
went on. The outer country became more than ever a 
contrast with the "mingled beauty and grandeur of the 
river." Numberless streams and springs fell over the black 



1 64 Fremont and '49. 

cliffs and out of their faces into the river, which was a 
constant succession of falls and rapids, all surrounded by the 
vast expanse of the wonderful but desolate lava plain. One 
place where the descent was about eighteen feet, with much 
foam and some small islands, was particularly pleasing. 
The Indians cared less than those in the east for gewgaws, 
beads, and red paint. They were decked out in any old 
clothing of the emigrants they could get and valued sub- 
stantial articles rather than decorative ones. Fremont 
frequently refers to the surrounding distant mountain 
ranges, especially to the Salmon River Range, and it is 
certain that no one with the slightest appreciation of the 
magnificent in nature could travel across the Snake River 
Plains without experiencing many pleasurable thrills as 
his eye ranged the far-off but distinct serrations that stud 
the entire circumference of the horizon. 

About two o'clock on the 3rd of October the Oregon Trail 
brought them to the ford of Snake River, where they were 
to go from the left, or south, bank which they had followed, 
to the right, or north, bank. "The river here is expanded 
into a little bay in which there are two islands, across which 
is the road of the ford." This was probably an ancient 
Indian crossing. Hiring an Indian to point out the way 
they started into the dashing current, and away went the 
precious howitzer taking the mules with it and almost 
drowning them. They were saved only by dexterously 
cutting the harness. The rubber boat was quickly brought 
into use and by its aid everything was safely put across, even 
to the howitzer, which meanwhile had been rescued. They 
camped where they landed, among some Indian lodges 
made semicircular, "of willow thatched over with straw, 
and open to the south." The common name afterwards 
for these shelters was wickiup. The latitude was 42° 
55' 58"* longitude 115° 04' 46", not far evidently from 
Glenn's Ferry on the Oregon Short Line Railway. On the 
5th they foiuid some hot springs with a temperature of 



Fort Boise 165 

164° F. Hot springs and soda springs are very common in 
Idaho. 

The next day, after about three miles' travel, the volcanic 
nature of the country with its rough lava began to change 
and suddenly, as they entered some hills, they found them- 
selves in a granite country. The sage-brush gave way also 
to other, brighter, plants and green grass. The Lieutenant 
remarks that he had heard that in Mexico wheat had been 
grown on sage-brush land. It is now well known that 
wherever sage-brush flourishes a good crop of wheat can be 
produced without irrigation. The road was heading for 
Fort Boise and on the 8th they reached that Hudson Bay 
post, about a mile, Fremont says, beyond the mouth of the 
Boise River on the right bank of the Snake. It was "a 
simple dwelling house" he remarks. Chittenden, in his 
itinerary of the Oregon Trail , says Fort Boise was eight miles 
below the mouth of the Boise, so it was evidently not the 
main establishment that Lieutenant Fremont describes. 
The party was agreeably received by Mr. Payette, who was 
in charge and whose garrison consisted of a single Canadian 
"engage." When T. J. Famham was there a few years 
earlier, Payette, a French Canadian, was "a merry, fat old 
gentleman of 50," very polite and hospitable. The post had 
been originally established as a vantage point from which to 
oust Wyeth from his Fort Hall enterprise, a task which was 
rapidly and successfully accomplished. Famham remarks: 

In the exercise of the rights thus granted [by the American 
Government] the H. B. Company employ their incomparable 
ingenuity and immense wealth in driving every American trader 
from the coasts of the North Pacific. . . . The Government 
of the United States, through want of wisdom or firmness or 
justice, permitted these important rights of its citizens to be 
monopolised by foreign capitalists for the last thirty years. * 

' Thomas J. Famham, Travels in the Great Wcsterii Prairies. 



i66 Fremont and '49 

Famham also states that the fort was eight miles north 
of the mouth of the Boise, and that it was 

a parallelogram about lOO feet square, surrounded by a stockade 
of poles about fifteen feet in hight. . . . Across the area north 
and south runs the principal building. It is constructed of logs, 
and contains a large dining-room, a sleeping apartment and 
kitchen. On the north side of the area in front of this is the 
store; on the south side the dwellings of the servants. . . . 
This was Fort Boisais in 1839. Mons. Payette was erecting a 
neat adobe wall around it. . . . Among the curiosities of this 
estabUshment were the fore wheels, axletree, and thills of a one- 
horse waggon. 

These were left by the missionaries from the State of Con- 
necticut. 

Payette presented the Fremont party with fresh butter, 
and he was in every way kind and considerate. There was 
no reason for being otherwise to a scientific party, but the 
H. B. Company seldom was inhospitable at its posts, and of 
course much depended on the kind of man in charge. Their 
Indians might steal or ruin everything an American trapper 
had, but if he could reach an H. B. post he would be gently 
resuscitated and sent on his homeward way, well fed, though 
penniless. 

At Fort Boise the Oregon Trail again crossed the Snake, 
from the north to the south bank, or rather from the east 
to the west, as the river makes a sudden turn to the north 
and describes a wide arc in that direction before joining 
the Columbia. By crossing and bearing north-west, the 
Trail cut off the long and difficult detour, and arrived at the 
Columbia some miles below the mouth of the Snake. This 
cut-off was discovered in December, 181 1, by the first white 
man on record to lead a party through this region, Wilson 
Price Hunt, who was forced to discontinue his effort to 
follow Snake River farther north by the extremely rough 
character of its valley. He had come along the Snake over 




Snake River below Lewiston 

Photogruph by K. S. Dellenbaugh 



Last of Snake River 167 

practically the same route followed by Lieutenant Fremont 
on the Oregon Trail, except that he had tried to navigate 
the turbulent river. 

Ramsay Crooks was with Hunt on this memorable 
journey from the east to the west, and he also returned from 
west to east over the road the next year, 18 12, with young 
Robert Stuart, when they struck more southerly, from about 
Fort Hall's position, than the Hunt party had come, and 
thus were the first to go through South Pass. The Oregon 
Short Line Railway now follows about the same cut across 
to the Columbia that Hunt did in 181 1, and that the Oregon 
Trail did in the later period. 

Lines of progress across a country are determined for 
any intelligent explorer by the topography, and he heeds 
the great obstacles to progress, unless he has a special reason 
for not doing so. Generally the natives had marked out 
the best highways, and if they could be followed going was 
easy. When they had few horses, the trails made by moc- 
casined feet were not so deeply marked, yet it is surprising 
how distinct they were. The morning of October nth saw 
the expedition across the Snake and on its way to leave the 
inhospitable stream behind. The boat was left for Fitz- 
patrick's benefit. Two starving Irishmen, who had lost 
their horses and were on the return to Boise, they fed and 
then proceeded, reaching Malheur River about sunset, a 
stream fifty feet wide and eighteen inches deep at this time. 
More hot springs were seen the next day, where the tempera- 
ture of the water was 193° F. Crossing Birch River they 
descended to Snake River where it makes a sharp bend — here 
a "large body of water and a smooth current." At this 
place they camped in latitude 44° 17' 36", longitude 116° 
56' 45", and altitude 1880 feet above the sea. 

This camp was the last on the Snake, and the Lieutenant 
records some impressions as he contemplated the region to 
the southward, speaking of the "California Range, " the 
name then used for the Sierra Nevada, forming the 



i68 Fremont and '49 

eastern limit of the fertile and timbered lands 'along the desert 
and mountainous region included within the Great Basin — a 
term which I apply to the intermediate region between the Rocky 
Mountains and the next range, containing many lakes, with 
their own system of rivers and creeks (of which the Great Salt 
Lake is the principal) , and which have no connection with the 
ocean or the great rivers which flow into it. This Great Basin 
is yet to be adequately explored. 

This, I believe, is the first time the term Great Basin is 
used in print and, so far as I know, Fremont was the origi- 
nator of it. Captain Wilkes on his map of 1841 calls it 
"Great Sandy Plain," and Bonneville's map of an earlier 
date does not give it a name. ^ Of course it is not one con- 
tinuous basin, for, as pointed out in an earlier chapter, it is 
much broken up by short mountain ranges, but the entire 
area possesses a certain homogeneity of configuration that 
fully warrants the special term Great Basin as applied to 
the whole feature. 

The expedition was now in an exceedingly mountainous 
country. The valley of Burnt River looked to the Lieutenant 
like a hole among the hills. The road was rough and for 
waggons dangerous, sometimes difficult even for a riding 
horse. It was up and down and down and up, over the 
rocks, crossing and recrossing deep waters, which made 
progress slow. All things have their compensations, and this 
ruggedness was beautiful; furthermore, the hills were covered 
with rich bunch grass, enabling the animals to get their 
fill of nourishing food. It was all a sharp contrast to the 
black barrenness of the Snake River Plains. Several Cayuse 
Indians (Waiilatpuan) had joined the caravan and continued 
with them for two or three days. 

^ Wilkes's maps while dated " 1841 " cannot be relied on implicitly as not 
showing anything after that year. On the one of the Oregon Country are the 
words " Fremont's South Pass." Fremont, as we know, was not at South 
Pass till the Summer of 1842 and did not make his report till March 1843. 
The Wilkes report is dated 1845 and it would seem the maps ought to have 
the same date. 



The Blue Mountains 169 

On the afternoon of the 17th they obtained a view of the 
fine valley of the Grande Ronde — a great circle. Beyond 
were the Blue Mountains, a splendid range, which the party 
had observed for a day or two. I know of no more beauti- 
ful range than this, especially as one approaches it in the 
afternoon when it looms abrupt, blue, and mighty against 
the western sky. I find in my diary an entry that we 
"caught glimpses of the Blue Mountains ahead. At one 
point their snowy summits were massed against the west, 
misty and grand with a fine cloud effect, the golden glow of 
sunset breaking through at one place softly, not violently, 
and forming an exquisite picture." The altitude of the 
range is 8650 feet above sea. The entrance into the valley 
which Lieutenant Fremont had followed was that marked 
by some preceding emigrant waggons, and it was abrupt 
and rough. When he found they had headed for a similar 
exit, he soon abandoned this road and struck out for him- 
self, on an Indian trail which Payette had described to him. 

They had an even harder time than they probably would 
have found on the waggon trail, and at their camp of October 
19th, when they had passed out of the Grande Ronde 
Valley altogether and were scaling the Blue Mountains, 
they had a hard task getting water from the bottom of a 
deep canyon in the darkness. Their altitude above the 
sea was here 3830 feet, latitude 45° 38' 07", longitude 117° 
28' 34". Several days of this sort of travelling brought them 
gradually to the western "verge of the Blue Mountains, 
long spurs of which, very precipitous on either side, extended 
down to the valley, the waters of the mountain roaring 
between them." The barometer was broken, after which 
the altitudes were calculated from the boiling point of water, 
to-day considered the most exact method. 

Winding around the heads of these ravines and gradually 
descending they camped for the night of October 22nd in a 
large meadow, "in view of the great prairie (Nez Perce) 
below." They crossed the head of the Umatilla River and 



170 Fremont and '49 

got down on the Walla Walla. Preuss who had walked 
ahead of the caravan failed to come in to camp at dark, but 
the next day they discovered him farther down on the 
Walla Walla River. He had gone too far ahead to make 
rejoining the outfit easy so he stayed where he was. A 
sight of Mount Hood, i8o miles away, was obtained as they 
emerged from the timber of the Blue Mountain slopes. The 
nights and mornings were quite cool now but the days were 
still pleasantly warm. At sunset on the 23rd of October the 
thermometer (F.) stood at 48°. Latitude was 45° 53' 35'', 
longitude 118° 00' 2>9"- 

Proceeding down the Walla Walla they soon arrived at 
the Presbyterian missionary establishment, consisting of one 
adobe house, of Dr. Marcus Whitman, who had become so 
imbued with the necessity of missionary work in this country 
on his first visit in 1832 that he returned East when only part 
way through the wilderness and prepared for extensive labours 
in this field, giving up the practice of the medical profession 
except as it fell to his lot in missionary work. Small-pox 
broke out among the Indians at a later time, and although 
Whitman had been all kindness to them, they ascribed their 
misfortune to him and the other missionaries, especially 
as the Indians died and the whites did not, and about 
three years after Lieutenant Fremont's visit, and eleven 
after the doctor began his whole-hearted work for them, the 
Cay uses murdered Doctor and Mrs. Whitman and many 
others who were at the station. The superstition of the 
Indians had been excited, probably by the shamans, and 
when this occurs they halt at nothing. We must not 
condemn all Indians because some are unjust and cruel. 
White men not infrequently are murderers.^ 

Dr. Whitman was absent at the time Fremont arrived. 

' We have only to remember the appalling revelations in the New York 
Police Department in 1912-13, to discover to what depths of depravity white 
men can fall in the business of murder, and no Indians were ever so brutal at 
heart as the New York tough and gangster. 











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Mounts Hood and St. Helens 171 

There were Nez Perce Indians encamped there and a large 
family of healthy emigrants. After securing some potatoes, 
no flour being available as the mill had burned down, the 
caravan continued on its way, and camped a few miles 
below. On the 26th of October in the morning they reached 
Nez Perce Fort, a Hudson Bay post at the junction of the 
Walla Walla and the Columbia, not far from where Wallula 
now stands, and obtained their first view of the great Co- 
lumbia, which Fremont notes was 1200 yards wide and 
presenting the appearance of a fine navigable stream. He 
had made numerous notes as they came through the Blue 
Mountains, and he even walked long distances with a tape 
line in his hand in order to measure the trees and form an 
accurate opinion as to their diameters, height, etc. 

The commander of the fort, a Mr. McKinlay, received 
them with "great civilit}/' and also treated the heads of the 
emigrant families the same way, inviting them all to dinner. 
One of the emigrants was named Applegate, under whose 
direction a number of boats were building, and nearly com- 
pleted, in which the people intended to continue their 
journey down the waters of the Columbia, instead of travel- 
ling by land. Soon after the Fremont Expedition had 
started they were passed by this party gliding easily down 
the smooth, swift river. Fremont wound up the month of 
October plodding along down the south bank of the Co- 
lumbia, with occasional sights of Mount Hood's wliite cone 
and of the equally beautiful cone of Mount St. Helens, 
Mount Hood being in view most of the time. It is a majestic 
sight. Its isolation tends to enchance its grandeur as there 
is nothing near to detract from it. A mountain standing 
like this acquires almost a personality. The last camp in 
October was in latitude 45° 44' 23", longitude 119° 45' 09". 

November, 1843, was begun by a clear sharp morning, 
and a brilliant view of Mount Hood, as the expedition 
proceeded down the great river, now 1690 feet broad with 
dark bluffs of picturesque rocks. On the 2nd they were 



172 Fremont and '49 

obliged to make a detour on account of the steepness of the 
bluffs, crossed John Day's River, and camped in a grassy- 
hollow without water. John Day's River was so called 
after an unfortunate member of Wilson Price Hunt's 1811 
party. The next day they struggled across Fall River 
(Deschutes River) , at the regular ford — no easy passage, for 
the river was high. The precious howitzer was sometimes 
several feet under water, and it might be surmised that by 
this time the Lieutenant had become aware of its uselessness 
and would have allowed it to remain submerged, but, on 
the contrary, he appeared still to believe it so valuable that 
the thought arises that perhaps, after all, it was not in- 
tended solely to frighten Indians. Whatever the reason it 
was dragged along tenaciously until it became an im- 
possibility to move it any farther. 

Indians were met with frequently but there was no 
hostility. Fremont writes : 

In comparison with the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and 
the great eastern plain, these are disagreeably dirty in their 
habits. Their huts were crowded with half -naked women and 
children, and the atmosphere within anything but pleasant to 
persons who had just been riding in the fresh morning air. 

From a hill on the 4th they overlooked the valley of the 
Columbia for many miles, and a chief pointed out several 
large houses in the distance as the Methodist Missionary 
establishment, called by the Indians "Lee House." This 
was the one founded by Lee and Perkins in 1838. A few 
miles beyond this point they came to the Dalles, where 
the entire river is compressed to small dimensions and 
ploughs madly through a narrow gash in the basalt, Fre- 
mont measured the passage and found the narrowest part 
fifty yards, with walls of about twenty-five feet in height, 
forming a trough — "whence the name, probably applied 
by a Canadian voyageur." 

Applegate and his other boatmen tried to run this place, 



The Pack Saddle 173 

not a difficult matter at the low stage of water then prevailing, 
but one man was inexperienced. The boat was capsized; 
two of Applegate's children and the man were drowned. 
The caravan proceeded below the Dalles three or four miles, 
and that night, November 4th, camped at the Methodist 
mission they had seen from the eminence earlier in the day. 
Two good dwelling-houses, a schoolhouse, stables, bam, and 
gardens with large cleared fields, on which were the huts of 
the Indians, "gave the valley the cheerful and busy air of 
civilisation, and had in our eyes an appearance of abundant 
and enviable comfort. . . and the hospitable and kind re- 
ception with which we were welcomed among our country 
people at the mission aided the momentary illusion of home. " 
The place was under the direction of Mr. Perkins.^ 

Here a large canoe was obtained from the Indians, for 
the Lieutenant found it desirable to complete his journey to 
Fort Vancouver by water. Word was sent back to Fitz- 
patrick to abandon the carts at Whitman's and come on with 
packs, to meet the commander at the Dalles, whence he 
would start on the return trip. Carson was left at the 
Dalles to superintend the making of pack-saddles, for there 
would be no chance for anything on wheels, except the 
cannon, after this. A pack-saddle is not hard to make. 
Two pine boards, about six inches wide and eighteen inches 
long, are rounded on the ends and on the edges of the side 
which is to be next the animal's back. To these are screwed, 
nailed, or tied two crosstrees, each like a letter X with the 
upper arms very short, made by notching together two 
pieces of oak, or other strong wood, about one and a 
quarter inch square, and a foot long. These are placed a 
few inches back from the ends of the boards. More or less 
adjustment and shaping of the boards are done according to 
the idea of the maker. Straps for the cinche, and for the 
crupper and breeching, if these are to be attached, and for 

' For details on this establishment, see Famham's Travels in the Great 
Western Prairies, chapter viii. 



174 Fremont and '49 

a breast strap, considered superfluous by some, are fastened 
on securely. 

A blanket is placed on the animal's back, the saddle on 
this, and the cinche is drawn as tightly as possible by placing 
one foot against the animal's side and hauling on the leather 
strap, which has been passed through the iron rings, with 
all one's strength. This, apparently, almost cuts the mule 
or horse in two equal parts, but it is best for him — the 
desirable thing in slinging a pack is to have it hold its place. 
A loose pack is no kindness to its carrier. On the saddle- 
buck are slung, by means of small ropes, two sacks of goods 
which balance, or two prepared "alforgas, " a kind of square 
bag with loops which fit over the crosses of the saddle- 
buck. Next are piled carefully on in balance the desired 
number of articles, to the extent all together of say 150 to 
200 poimds, — blankets, tent, small loose articles of little 
weight, — and over all the canvas pack cover, upon which the 
long, strong rope is crossed and tucked under very scientific- 
ally by the two packers, one on each side, and drawn very 
tight to make the "hitch. " The most difficult to learn, and 
the best for packing, is the "Diamond Hitch," too compli- 
cated to describe easily. The name comes from the fact 
that the rope forms a diamond on top of the pack. I have 
slung it hundreds of times, in heat and in cold, in snow and 
in rain, and its character is deeply impressed on my mind. 
Mules occasionally dislike the operation so greatly that they 
must be blindfolded — with a blindfold animal one can do any- 
thing. They are quiet as long as the blind remains in place, 
but should it drop off prematurely during the operation the 
packers will be found distributed some yards distant from 
the scene. 

The journey from the Dalles down to Fort Vancouver 
was an agreeable change for those who made it: Lieutenant 
Fremont, Preuss, Bemier, and Jacob Dodson. The canoe 
was skilfully managed by three Indians, and some of the 
distance was made at night to avoid the high winds which 




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< - 



The Cascades i75 

blow in daytime. As Lieutenant Fremont had now con- 
nected his operations with those of Captain Wilkes of the 
United States Navy, there was little need to examine this 
country closely. Where the Columbia breaks through the 
Coast Mountains there is a succession of severe rapids called 
Cascades, from which the range takes its name. As before 
pointed out, it is a continuation of both the Sierra Nevada 
and the Coast Range which together merge into this one. 
At the Cascades a successful portage was made with the 
assistance of other Indians engaged at the spot. The rough 
water continued for about two miles, some of it being navi- 
gable for the canoe, and then there was a smooth river again. 

The noise of a sawmill is not usually considered an agree- 
able sound, but when the boat in the night was passing one 
which was in operation, they floated quietly in Order to 
enjoy its music. A sawmill means homes, food, comfort 
to the explorer; it is usually the foundation of these re- 
quisites in a new country, and its hum may be classed with 
the mellow tone of the cowbell, the crowing of chanticleer, 
and the scream of the steam whistle as a sort of frontier 
symphony. Before midnight of the day after leaving the 
Dalles the boat party camped about a mile above Fort 
Vancouver, and the next morning Lieutenant Fremont 
immediately called on Doctor McLoughlin, officer in charge, 
and was cordially received by that distinguished gentleman, 
director-in-chief of all the Hudson Bay Company's posts 
west of the Rocky Mountains. It was this kind-hearted 
man who gradually found himself opposed to the attitude 
of the H. B. Co. toward American settlers, whose cause he 
valiantly furthered, till he met trouble with the Company 
and finally himself became a citizen of the United States. 
Fremont had no difficulty in purchasing on government 
orders all the supplies he needed, and McLoughlin placed 
at his disposal boats and crews for their transportation to 
the Dalles. 

There were many American emigrants at the fort, others 



176 Fremont and '49 

had gone on, and still others were daily arriving. All 
of these received courtesy and hospitality from Doctor Mc- 
Loughlin, who was a great man, one of large views and wide 
sympathies. He did not approve of trading rum and alcohol 
to the natives and all he could get hold of he stored away 
out of reach of every one. Captain Wilkes tells of his 
actually purchasing a large amount of rum brought in by a 
vessel, merely to put it away in safe storage, before it could 
be otherwise disposed of. 

The establishment was a most complete one, compris- 
ing an apothecary shop, bakery, blacksmith's and coop- 
er's shops, offices for buying and selling, counting-rooms, 
and retail shops where everything could be bought includ- 
ing groceries. All the other posts in this department were 
supplied through Vancouver. 

The buildings covered about four acres (250 x 150 yards, 
says Famham) enclosed by a stockade twenty-five feet high, 
with a couple of entrance gates. There were no bastions, 
galleries, or loopholes as in most other forts, and the only 
warlike weapons which Captain Wilkes could get any 
knowledge of were two old cannon on sea carriages. In the 
centre of the enclosure stood the Roman Catholic Chapel, 
Dr. McLoughlin and many of the other Canadians holding 
to that faith, but this did not interfere with the extension 
of all kinds of aid to the missionaries of other creeds who 
passed this way. There were also farms, gardens, and a 
dairy attached which produced grain, vegetables, fruits, 
butter, and other staples of the kind. A grist-mill, and 
the sawmill, turning out three thousand feet of lumber per 
day, which had made music for the Fremont party in the 
stilly night as they came down the river, were also part of 
the plant. All the axes and hatchets used by their trappers 
were manufactured here.^ 

' Condensed from the Report of Captain Wilkes, vol. v., p. 327 et seq. 
See Famham's Travels in the Great Western Prairies for a detailed description. 
The fort had a stronger armament later. 



Fort Vancouver 177 

In two days Fremont had made all arrangements and 
was ready to return to the Dalles. He resisted the tempta- 
tion, which was a strong one, to continue down the river till 
he could see the Pacific. "The object of my instructions," 
he remarks, "had been entirely fulfilled in having connected 
our reconnaissance with the surveys of Captain Wilkes." 
He could now, very properly, have taken the Oregon Trail 
for home with the prospect of easy going as he understood 
every foot of the way, but this was not his desire, and it is 
probable that the feasibility of performing the task he was 
about to enter upon had been talked over with Senator 
Benton and other advisers before he started. Information 
was desired of that great interior wilderness. His intention 
was to go back by way of Klamath Lake and "a great circuit 
to the south and south-east," by which he expected to explore 
the "Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains and the 
Sierra Nevada." The Buenaventura River, already elimin- 
ated from the maps of Gallatin, Bonneville, and Wilkes, 
was to be another point on this route, and finally they 
were to strike for Bent's Fort on the Arkansas about seventy 
miles below the present city of Pueblo, Colorado. Doc- 
tor McLoughlin believed in the existence of the Buenaven- 
tura, "and made out a conjectural manuscript map to show 
its place and course," to Fremont, says Benton.' A repro- 
duction of Bonneville's map is given at page 24. 

Lieutenant Fremont was not only exact and scientific 
in his undertakings, but he never chose the easy path. In 
exploration, however, it is not desirable to plunge in without 
a complete preliminary examination of all existing data 
on the subject, and especially of that obtained by others 
on the spot. The Lieutenant does not seem to know about 
the remarkable journey of Jedediah Smith across the Great 
Basin in 1827, nor much of Joseph Walker's in 1833 (he is 
joined by Walker on the return from California in 1844), 
nor of Bonneville's map, nor Gallatin's. The map made by 

• Thirty Years' View, vol. ii., p. 580. 



178 



Fremont and '49 



Captain Wilkes, facing page 44, this volume, is dated 1841. 
Fremont may have had a copy of it with him, though it was 
not published to the world till after Fremont's return from 
this second expedition. He ought to halve had Gallatin's, 
which was published in 1836. Perhaps he thought them 
incorrect, or, at least, incomplete. It is plain to see that 
there were some hard days in store for the resolute and en- 
terprising Lieutenant before he should arrive at Bent's Fort. 








CHAPTER IX 

THE SEARCH FOR THE RIO BUENAVENTURA 

A Myth that was not a Myth — Volcanoes of the Columbia — The Precious 
Howitzer — Some Cold Weather — Klamath Marsh Taken for the Lake — 
Where is Mary's Lake? — Summer Lake and Lake Abert — Deep Snows, 
Sandy Valleys, Black Fog — A Topographical Surprise — The Lake of the 
Pyramid — Feasting on Salmon-trout — No Rio Buenaventura — Westward 
Ho! 



UP to Fort Vancouver, just opposite the present city 
of Portland, the travels of Lieutenant Fremont west 
of the Rocky Mountains had been in the disputed 
territory of Oregon, a district then generally defined as 
beginning at the transcontinental divide, and embracing the 
country north of 42° even to 54°, 40', except a brief traverse 
of the north-eastern corner of Mexico, and his visit to Great 
Salt Lake, also in Mexican territory. Now he was about 
to make an extensive tour through the middle of the region 
at that time called Alta or Upper California : the area be- 
tween the Colorado River, the 42d parallel, and the Pacific. 
From Klamath Lake he intended to go south-east to a 

reported lake called Mary's at some days' journey in the Great 
Basin; and thence still on south-east to the reputed Buenaventura 
River, which has had a place on so many maps, and countenanced 
the belief of the existence of a great river flowing from the Rocky 
Mountains to the Bay of San Francisco. 

A glance at Bonneville's map, facing page 24, and at 
the map of Captain Wilkes, facing page 44, will show no 
Buenaventura River. As already stated this myth had been 

179 



i8o Fremont and '49 

exploded by the travels of Jedediah Smith and Joseph 
Walker; but myths are slow to die, and many of the fron- 
tiersmen did not know about Smith's journey not only 
across the Great Basin but along the coast to Vancouver. 
Fremont strongly believed that this Buenaventura might 
exist, evidently Carson and Fitzpatrick did not oppose his 
idea; perhaps they themselves believed in it, as neither 
knew the region where it was supposed to flow. Walker 
knew it best but Fremont did not learn from him till on 
the return journey in May, "that, from the Great Salt 
Lake west, there was a succession of lakes and rivers which 
have no outlet to the sea nor any connection with the 
Columbia, or with the Colorado." * Consequently there was 
the old Buenaventura myth, ever youthful like a beautiful 
vision, leading them on ; a vision of a broad river with grassy 
bottoms and great groves of cool cottonwoods, where they 
planned to winter, on "the banks of the Buenaventura, 
where in the softer climate of a more southern latitude, our 
horses might find grass to sustain them, and ourselves be 
sheltered from the rigours of winter and from the inhospitable 
desert."^ He relied on Mary's Lake and the Buenaventura 
to recruit the animals and repose the party. They are now 
setting out to discover these unknown charms, and perhaps 
from that point of vantage the Lieutenant meant to re- 
connoitre the whole California situation! How different 
was the reality from this enticing dream of soft breezes and 
languorous repose ! 

The boat party left Fort Vancouver for the Dalles on 
November loth, 1843, and they found going up the Col- 
umbia quite another story from going down. The nth 
and all the following days till the afternoon of the 1 8th were 
occupied with laboriously working the boats up-stream; 
towing, paddling, portaging. Views of the several fine peaks 
were frequently obtained; of what he calls "Mt. Regnier" 
(Rainier, now known as Tacoma also) (14,363 feet), Mt. St. 

^ Report, p. 27S- ' Report, p. 205. 



A New Start i8i 

Helens (10,000 feet), and Mt. Hood (i 1,225 feet). St. Helens 
had been mildly active the year before and from one of the 
missionaries Fremont got some of the ashes thrown out 
at that time. He also states that Rainier had been 
active. 

Arriving at the Dalles, everything was found in good 
order under Carson's efficient care, and William Gilpin, a 
guest of the expedition, had arrived in advance of Fitz- 
patrick. He intended to examine the settlements and went 
down the Columbia the next day in the returning boats. 
Fremont seems to have discovered little in this remarkable 
man to interest him, though the fact that he travelled with 
the Fitzpatrick supply train may account for the lack of 
mention in the report. The new party for Klamath Lake 
and the Buenaventura paradise was twenty-five in number, 
several being under twenty-one years of age ; but young men 
are an advantage, if they have sense. All were full of confi- 
dence notwithstanding they were about to enter an almost 
unknown region, and the Lieutenant testifies that they were 
cheerful, ready, and obedient from first to last, a contrast 
to the somewhat hysterical band Fremont had with him on 
his first expedition to the Wind River Mountains. 

A supply of provisions for three months had been secured 
at Vancouver, consisting principally of flour, peas, and tallow. 
The tallow was for cooking and I can vouch for the palata- 
bility of clean white tallow used in place of bacon-fat in 
camp, for I have tried it myself. Butter, lard, or oil are too 
rare to be mentioned. Besides these supplies, a number of 
cattle were driven along to be butchered as needed. There 
were 104 horses and mules — seventy-nine therefore available 
for packing. On the 21st Fitzpatrick and Talbot and the 
rest of the supply outfit came in. One man was discharged, 
and in his place a young Chinook, a protege of Superinten- 
dent Perkins, was engaged to go part of the way. Two 
Indians were induced by Mr. Perkins to accompany the 
party for a time as guides, one of whom bore scars of an 



1 82 Fremont and '49 

encounter with the natives of the Klamath region on a 
former trip. 

On November 25th all hands were early astir under an 
array of intensely brilliant stars gleaming through the frosty 
air, which was crisp with its temperature of 26° F. at sunrise. 
The stars never shine at any other time, it appears to me, 
with quite such intensity as very early on one of these winter 
mornings in the Far West, especially at a high altitude. It 
seems almost as if one could reach up and pluck them from 
the enveloping ebony. The sky at great elevations is not 
blue, it is black — even at midday. This was the day for 
beginning the far journey into the mysteries of the south — 
into the land of the seductive Buenaventura. The instru- 
ment waggon was discarded as henceforth useless and pre- 
sented to the Mission, but the howitzer, though on wheels, 
was still near to the Lieutenant's heart and it was taken 
along. 

About noon the long cavalcade of pack-animals and 
horsemen, the cannon being the only wheeled transporta- 
tion, started on its way amid flurries of snow, signals, as it 
were, of what the futiu-e held in store for them instead of 
the mythical meadows and the dolce far niente of lapping 
waters, to which they looked forward. Mr. Perkins rode 
with them several miles, a last exhibition of his attention 
and kindness, then he turned back and the expedition, 
the final thread of intercourse severed, plodded on into the 
new realm of which the Lieutenant dreamed with scien- 
tific joy. Here was the promised land for him, a land full of 
geographical, botanical, geological problems for him to solve ; 
and a land that lay not so far from the bay of San Francisco. 
He was happy, no matter what the hardships might be. 
Climbing out of the valley of the river they soon came to 
snow lying on the ground in patches, but the grass was 
abundant and green. Camp was pitched on a little branch 
of the creek they had followed up, which Fremont calls 
Tinanens Creek (Eight-mile Creek), with good grass and 



Due South 183 

fine timber. Two "bad looking" Indians, among a number 
who had elected to accompany the party for a time, were 
caught stealing and were tied and laid before the fire with a 
guard. Evidently this treatment was effective for the 
scamps are not mentioned again. 

The night was freezing cold; at sunrise the next morning 
the temperature was only 20° F. This was the first real cold 
weather experienced and in camp one always feels the first 
sharp mornings even more than much colder weather after 
winter has fairly set in. Continuing on up the Tinanens 
Creek they followed a right-hand branch of the trail and came 
out on the divide between this stream and "Fall River." 
A fine view of St. Helens and Rainier was presented 
from these heights, and they also saw below them Taih 
(Tygh) Prairie to which they descended and camped on the 
stream (White River) in it, after dark guided by the light of 
fires which "some naked Indians belonging to a village on 
the opposite side " built for the purpose. They had travelled 
almost due south from the Methodist Mission and were to 
continue in about that direction along the eastern slopes of 
the Cascade Range as far as Klamath Marsh, parallel 43°. 

Fremont observes that this country is far more interest- 
ing than the route along the Snake and the Columbia, the 
splendid Cascade Range (which divides Oregon into two 
distinct climates) being in view constantly, on their right. 
They sighted Mt. Jefferson (10,200 feet) and towards 
evening arrived at another tributary to the Deschutes River 
(Nena Creek) and went into camp in latitude 45° 06' 45", 
longitude 121° 02' 43", not far from the present town of 
Wapinitia, Oregon. The thermometer during the observa- 
tions stood at 9° F. In the morning it had been down to 
2.5° F., a proof that the real winter had come. Barring the 
canyons in which streams flowed across their path, and which 
caused them considerable hard work, the way was not 
difficult. Sometimes the gun-carriage had to be unlim- 
bered, and maneuvred down and up the declivities by hand. 



i84 Fremont and '49 

Making his customary notes on everything he saw, 
botany, geology, topography, accessibihty, etc., Fremont 
went on south without particular incident for several days. 
On December 1st one of the mules got his pack wet at a ford 
which turned the sugar it contained to syrup. Near their 
camp that night was a family of Nez Perces (Shahaptian) 
who had so handsome a horse Fremont tried to trade for it 
a cow. Much as they wanted the cow they loved the horse 
too well to let him go. Early the next morning the moun- 
tain peaks "presented a beautiful appearance, the snow 
being entirely covered with a hue of rosy gold." This is 
one of the most enchanting effects on high mountains, and 
when the traveller beholds a scene of this kind in its full 
perfection it is something to remember to the final hour. I 
recall an evening when the whole Stikine Range in Alaska 
was effulgent with this rosy glow, the distance and shadows 
at the same time being an ethereal blue. Every member 
of our party gazed on the scene with rapture and turned away 
only when the range became sombre, as it sank into darkness. 
Fremont was artistically sensitive to his surroundings and 
notes effects which many explorers do not see. 

The streams everywhere were full of falls, rapids, and 
foaming cascades. There was much fine timber, "larches" 
in one place 140 feet high and over three feet in diameter. 
On December 5th they had the "rare sight of a lunar rain- 
bow." Most people never see one; I have seen no more 
than three, but one of these in the mountains of Arizona 
was almost a perfect specimen, though our enjoyment of it 
was somewhat marred by a mule distributing the contents 
of its pack over several moonlit acres. On December 7th 
the last camp on Fall River was made in latitude 43° 
30' 36", longitude 121° 33' 50", only a trifle west of south 
of the Dalles. The morning after the last branch of 
Deschutes River (Fall River) was left behind and they went 
on following the same Indian trail they evidently had been 
on the whole time, leading a "little east of south, constantly 












A 



".."r; 



<M>aiiU- 



Nez Perce Teepees 

These arc built in the orii;iii.il style cif |il.iin!. teepee of buffalo skins 
I'hotORraph by \V. H. J.itkson, Hayden Survey 



Klamath Marsh 185 

through pine forests." The soil became poor and grass 
sometimes was scaree. 

On December I oth near noon a grassy meadow was 
reached which the guides said was an arm of Klamath Lake 
(Fremont writes it Tlamath, which is probably the way it 
should be, but now it is written Klamath), and very soon they 
saw "an extensive meadow or lake of grass, surrounded by 
timbered mountains." This, he says, was Klamath Lake, 
but he was wrong for it was only what is now known as 
Klamath Marsh. Klamath Lake is about thirty miles 
farther south. Fremont's route at Klamath Marsh turns 
abruptly east to another lake to which he gave the name 
of Summer, He did not see Klamath Lake. The ani- 
mals enjoyed the abundance of grass here and they cer- 
tainly needed all the fortifying possible for their coming 
experiences. 

It was necessary now to be continually on the alert 
regarding the Indians of this region, who, the Lieutenant 
says, had a reputation for hostility. A smoke was observed 
rising from the middle of the marsh, and from its farther 
side. Thinking to impress these far-off persons, a village 
of the natives the guides said, with the mighty power of the 
approaching caravan, the Lieutenant ordered the howitzer^ 
for the first time after dragging it all these weary leagues, to 
be charged and fired. The shell sped forth and at the proper 
interval burst, to the great consternation and dehght of the 
redskin guides at the rear end of the formidable piece. Of 
course the smokes immediately vanished, and those who had 
built them were fairly warned to look out for the enemy. 
The extinguishment of the smokes was the first step in 
preparation. 

The marsh, or as Fremont took it to be, the lake, he 
describes as a shallow basin which is at times for a brief 
period covered with water, leaving, when it departs, a sort 
of grassy meadow through which the Tlamath River as he 
calls it, now the Williamson, winds its way to Klamath Lake 



1 86 Fremont and '49 

below which the stream is named Klamath, and flows west- 
wardly to the waters of the Pacific. The next day, no 
Indians having appeared, though we may be certain that 
while unseen they were not unseeing, Fremont determined 
to go to their village, one of the guides previously having 
been there. As this place was surrounded by the marsh 
which had water here and there, with sheets of ice amidst 
the grass rendering it impossible for the horses to keep on 
their feet, the guide led the way along the edge, in the forest, 
before turning off toward the village. After a time it could 
be discerned in the form of a few "large huts," on top of 
which were collected the Indians. When within half a mile 
two were seen approaching the strange visitors. 

At the request of the guides the cavalcade spread out 
into a long line riding abreast and certainly must have made 
an imposing appearance. The guides galloped ahead to 
meet the two persons and soon Fremont also met them, sur- 
prised to find the chief and his wife, the chief "a very pre- 
possessing Indian, with very handsome features, and a 
singularly soft and agreeable voice." These people I may 
say have never been warlike and their only desire now with 
the approaching strangers, whom they had probably before 
well studied, was peace. 

Their houses were near the bank of the river, "large 
round huts perhaps twenty feet in diameter, with rounded 
tops, on which was the door by which they descended into 
the interior." Originally a notched log was used as a ladder 
for descent in Amerindian houses of this type. The usual 
construction is a framework of posts and beams, covered 
first with poles or branches, then brush of some sort, grass 
and earth. The chief weapon of the natives at this time 
was the bow-and-arrow, and a very effective arm it was at 
any range under one hundred yards. Kit Carson once 
remarked on this efficiency, especially in the darkness of 
night. The muscles of the Indians became strongly de- 
veloped, enabling them to pull the bow with a great force 



The Bow and Arrows 187 

that was transmitted to the arrow. Various heads were 
used. Arrows for rabbits, birds, and other small game were 
not tipped at all, the hard wood being merely brought to a 
point and perhaps extra hardened in the fire (hard wood 
very slightly charred becomes much harder). Stone and 
strap iron were the usual material for arrow-heads, the iron 
superseding the stone as intercourse with whites increased. 
Many years ago I obtained stone-headed arrows from Pai 
Utes, but I did not see them make the heads, though they 
showed me how it was done. ' 

The Klamaths were subsisting at the moment of Fre- 
mont's visit on a small fish, "great quantities of which, 
smoked and dried, were hanging on strings about the lodge. 
. . . Their shoes were made of straw or grass, . . . and the 
women wore on their heads a closely woven basket, which 
made a very good cap." This kind of a cap was in wide use 
among the tribes of California and the entire Pacific Slope. 
Mats four feet square were purchased from the Klamaths 
to "lay on the snow under our blankets and to use for 
table-cloths." He means, as cloths for the ground on which 
to spread the dishes, for it is not likely that there was a 
table in the outfit. "Numbers of singular looking dogs, 
resembling wolves, were sitting on the tops of the huts; 
and of these we purchased a young one, which, after its 
birthplace, was named Tlamath." He meets a singular fate 
later. 

Fremont notes that the language spoken by the Klamaths 
is different from the Shoshone and the Columbia River 
tribes. The Klamath is of the Lutuamian stock. They 
declared they were at war with the Modocs, who ranged 
south-west Oregon, yet the Modocs were their closest of kin, 
being precisely of the same stock, and speaking almost 

• The selected flake of flint is laid on the left palm on a piece of buck- 
skin. With a piece of the small leg bone of a deer ground to a dull point, used 
in the right hand, flakes of the flint arc cliippcd ofT by down pressure on the 
edge. It is not difficult, though skill varies in this as in any other operation. 



1 88 Fremont and '49 

exactly the same tongue. The Modocs were of more reso- 
lute spirit, and made their last stand against the whites in 
the noted Modoc War (1872-73). The locality of the 
Klamath Marsh Fremont pronounced picturesque and 
beautiful, "and under the hand of cultivation might be- 
come a little paradise." The latitude of this camp was 
42° 56' 51". Crater Lake, now a National Park, is about 
twenty-five miles west of Klamath Marsh but it was un- 
discovered at this time. 

The party turning eastward here were about to enter the, 
in this region, vague and variable bounds of the Great Basin; 
vague and variable because in some places it is the amount 
of annual precipitation which determines the boundary line. 
In very wet weather some of the lakes drain into California 
rivers; in dry they are a part of the many sub-drainage 
areas of the Great Basin. Fremont speaks in his narrative 
of "the best maps in his possession" showing the Mary's 
Lake and the Buenaventura River forming "a connected 
water line from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, " 
and he was eager to cross quickly and safely the intervening 
desert to the banks of the Buenaventura with its alluring 
meadows and balmy air. It would be interesting to know 
what maps these were that he had which gave these remark- 
able features, and why it was he had not examined the maps 
of Gallatin, Bonneville, and Wilkes with special reference 
to this will-o'-the-wisp he was following. 

Fremont, it seems was somewhat imaginative, and the 
idea of the Buenaventura apparently appealed to this phase of 
his mind. I cannot help thinking, too, that the belief in the 
existence of this lovely river valley south of the desert basins 
and close to the "California Mountains" had given rise to 
speculation on the feasibility of planting some kind of a 
military post there, in the event of a rupture with Mexico. 
After the discovery that it was all a myth any such notion 
certainly could not be mentioned. This is, of course, only 
surmise on my part and has no foundation in any word or 



Smith's Disaster 189 

act of Fremont, except possibly the hauling for so long of 
the useless howitzer. With its shells, this would have been 
desirable in a fort, and it must not be forgotten that the 
relations between Mexico and the United States in this 
year 1843 were at extreme tension, the imminent annexa- 
tion of Texas with its boundary claim being deemed by 
Mexico an unfriendly act provocative of war. 

The guides who had been their leaders up to this point 
now returned and no others from the Klamath tribe would 
consent to go. On the 12th December, the day after the 
visit to the Klamath village, the camp was filled with others 
of the tribe from the south-eastern shore of the "lake." 
Fremont feared treachery and every man was on his guard. 
"I was not unmindful," remarks the Lieutenant, "of the 
disasters which Smith, and other travellers, had met with 
in this country, and therefore was equally vigilant in guard- 
ing against treachery and violence." According to this 
statement he did know about the journeys of Jedediah 
Smith; at least he knew about the one Smith made in 1828 
up through northern California to Fort V'ancouver, and 
therefore he should have known of the famous first traverse 
of the Great Basin by him in 1827. It was not these Kla- 
math Indians who brought disaster to Smith, but those of 
the Umpqua River, where he was at the time, and they were 
of the Umpqua (Athapascan) tribe. On the 14th of July, 
1828, while Smith was out searching for a trail, his camp was 
attacked and fifteen of his men killed. Only three escaped 
and they flew from the scene, so Smith travelled alone to 
Fort Vancouver. Doctor McLoughlin immediately sent 
out a party which punished the Indians and secured most 
of the belongings of Smith which they had appropriated. 
Among this property was $20,000 worth of furs which 
McLoughlin bought at their full value, and in other ways he 
aided and befriended Smith, the pious trapper, in accordance 
with his own large and generous nature. Smith thereafter 
refused to trap or do any interfering business in the region 



190 Fremont and '49 

west of the Rocky Mountains which the Hudson Bay 
Company had pre-empted. 

Leaving the Klamath Marsh camp on the 12th the 
expedition crossed the end of the meadows and headed east- 
ward towards a lake, which the Indians told of, about in 
the direction Fremont had planned to go. There were 
ponds of ice and the pack animals fell frequently, necessi- 
tating assistance to put them on their feet again. A pack 
animal can rise with a pack if the footing is good, but not 
when it is slippery. Snow fell at intervals in large flakes 
and the sky was heavy and dark. Snow of this kind makes 
travelling specially difficult for the reason that it is hard to 
see the way. They camped finally in a cove, still near the 
eastern shore of the "lake," with timber and good grass. 
The next day the snow was from four to twelve inches deep. 
Going was hard, especially for the mules attached to the 
valuable howitzer. The party was overtaken by the Kla- 
math chief and several of his men, come to act as guides for a 
day or two. They advised camping on a stream of some 
size, in latitude 42° 51' 26", longitude, 121° 20' 42," 
having made twelve miles. This was "tributary to the lake 
and headwater of the Klamath River." The nights and 
mornings were now very cold, having been at zero on this 
particular morning. With plenty of good firewood, cold 
weather is no drawback to camping as one can be perfectly 
comfortable, especially if he has a tent. Without a tent the 
snow is apt to melt around the edges of the blankets. In 
those days the sleeping-bag had not been invented. 

On the 14th of December the snow was very deep and 
still it was steadily falling as the caravan travelled on for 
seven hours. The Indians suffered badly from cold and 
that evening declined to proceed any farther. The party 
had been going over other marshes and now were at a new 
stream (Sycan River, Beaver Creek branch) which came 
from the east and just below turned south, the Indians 
showing, by making a map on the ground in the way Indians 



An Indian Map 191 

do, how this ran on in a southerly direction, receiving many 
affluents and at last becoming a great river. From this 
Fremont deduced the conclusion that he must be on the 
headwaters of the Sacramento River, and he refers to sub- 
sequent information confirming this opinion. Nevertheless 
he was mistaken. He was still in the drainage area of 
Klamath River; he must have misunderstood the map of 
the Indians, for it is not likely that they made the error. 

The guides were given presents in the morning and went 
home rejoicing, while Fremont took a course north, sixty 
degrees east, as indicated by his Klamath friends. He 
crossed what he called the Sacramento, and entered a grassy 
plain. Beyond this open valley they had timber again 
with very deep snow, making the progress slow and difficult 
up a mountain. Plodding on for seven hours they came to 
some bare spots among the trees with a little bunch-grass on 
the side of a hollow, where they encamped. A cow that had 
been driven along was here killed for meat and found 
rather tough. Even worse going was met with on the next 
day, the i6th of December, 1843. The snow was three 
feet deep, and crusted so that the legs of the animals were 
bruised and cut. Breaking through snow crust also makes 
horses and mules nervous, especially if it is strong enough 
to sustain their weight for a moment. Such travelling is 
very wearing. It was almost all in pine forest, the branches 
heavily weighted with the white burden. The air was dark 
with falling snow ; the forest was profoundly still. Sombre as 
a forest is on such occasions there is something wonderfully 
impressive and beautiful about the stillness, broken perhaps 
only by the whisper of the snowflakes as they brush against 
the needle leaves and branches of the trees. All directions 
appear alike, and one seems to be journeying through a de- 
tached, phantom land. About noon the forest terminated; 
the expedition was on the brink of a steep cliff ; more than 
a thousand feet below was discovered a beautiful lake in the 
midst of green prairie, and bordered with green grass. The 



192 Fremont and '49 

sun broke forth over the valley, and there was no snow or 
ice to be seen down there. All was summer, a glorious sight 
to the men shivering on the heights which they called Winter 
Ridge, and "Summer Lake" was on their lips at once, the 
name the lake bears to this day. 

This was the beginning of the Great Basin in this direc- 
tion, and they might soon expect to make "dry camps." 
After some search a way was found down the rocks, to the 
north end of the lake, but it was dark before all were at the 
camp in the charming summer valley. The howitzer was 
left half-way down and one of the mules rolled two or three 
hundred feet into a ravine, pack and all, with no injury to 
himself, and little to the pack. This camp was in latitude 
42° 57' 22'', still within the limits of Oregon. Summer 
Lake has no outlet, but it is not a salt lake. 

Going down the west side of Summer Lake and continu- 
ing from the south end of it in a south-easterly direction they 
suddenly arrived on the morning of the 20th at the south 
end of another larger lake. It was about twenty miles long, 
and was named Lake Abert in honour of Colonel Abert, 
U.S.A., chief of the Topographical Corps. They followed an 
Indian trail north along the rocky precipice bounding the 
water on the east and soon discovered that the lake was one 
of salt water, and the place in every way was extremely for- 
bidding. Progress was slow, night came, the lake water was 
undrinkable ; but some holes dug in the shore gave a filtered 
substance that some of the men, including Fremont, were 
able to swallow. There was no supper this night, and in the 
morning no one wished to delay getting away. In about two 
hours' march they reached some holes or springs of pure 
water near the lake, where there was plenty of rough salty 
grass. They camped for the rest of the day to recuperate. 

Climbing the bounding hills at the north-east comer of 
the basin, they proceeded south-easterly and on the 24th 
camped at the east side of another but very small lake, the 
water of which they were able to drink. They had passed 



Christmas Lake 193 

on the previous day on the west side of a small lake (Ander- 
son Lake) which they could not approach for the surround- 
ing mud. Christmas morning the little lake at camp 
received a salute from the small arms and even from the 
howitzer, and Fremont named it Christmas Lake. At pres- 
ent these lakes coalesce and form what is called Warner 
Lake, after Captain Warner who was killed by Indians, a 
trifle farther south. Lakes with no outlet are numerous in 
the Great Basin — often salt. The only way Fremont had of 
giving a celebration was to distribute to the men a little of 
the husbanded store of brandy with some coffee and sugar, 
which, under the conditions, was "sufficient to make them a 
feast." They continued on this Christmas day, following 
"the plainly beaten trail, " occasionally passing Indian camp 
grounds. An attempt to strike farther east was quickly 
checkmated by the character of the country, which was 
impassable. Fresh Indian tracks about them explained 
where a horse had gone which disappeared in the night. 

The Basin here as everywhere consisted of "larger or 
smaller basins, into which the mountain waters run down, 
forming small lakes ; they present a perfect level, from which 
the mountains rise immediately and abruptly." The divides 
were low between the successive basins, indicating that at 
times they were in commimication. The general trend, as 
afterwards determined, is north and south, one beside 
another with hills or mountain ranges between. On the 
26th the camp was nearly on the 426. parallel, the northern 
boundary of California Alta, hence of Mexico, and below 
the line they were in what is now Nevada. To mark this 
point another horse was stolen.^ They were in snow again, 
the snow here depending on the altitude; when they went 
up they met snow, when they went down the snow vanished. 
To pass from a climate of blossoms, through rain to deep 
snow in a day's journey is nothing uncommon in the Sierra 

' It was in this vicinity that Pitt River Indians in 1849 ambushed and 
killed Captain W. H. Warner, U. S. A., and several of his men. 
13 



194 Fremont and '49 

Nevada or In the Rocky Mountain region. The day- 
after the horse was stolen they came suddenly and unex- 
pectedly on two brush wickiups, the recent occupants of 
which were seen scrambling up some nearby hills to escape. 
When Carson and Godey rode after them the men ran away, 
but a woman fell behind, was discovered, and taken to the 
wickiups, where she was calmed, but efforts to get the men 
to come in were not successful. Fremont believed that 
these people had never before seen a white man. 

On the 29th they were involved in heavy snow both 
above and below, but they kept on till late afternoon, when 
they saw "some low country ahead, presenting a dreary and 
savage character; and for a moment I looked around in 
doubt on the wild and inhospitable prospect, scarcely know- 
ing what road to take which might conduct us to some place 
of shelter for the night." Luck favoured them at last with 
a pleasant surprise. They came to a willow grove, with good 
water and grass, the latter covered with snow, to be sure, but 
long and green. Horses and mules will paw down through 
soft snow and crop the grass. A broad Indian trail came 
into this valley from the right, Fremont does not know from 
where, but it was probably from the head of Pitt River. 
This camp was in latitude 41° 27' 50'^ 

They did not wish to part from this comfortable stream 
and followed it the next day in a southeasterly direction till it 
canyoned. Crossing over the hills it was reached again 
beyond, where it seemed to be increasing, there were groves 
of willows, and Fremont began to think his present diffi- 
culties about over; that this stream was on the way to Mary's 
Lake. They descended rapidly, there was less snow, and 
finally they were going through a narrow chasm in the rocks 
with good grass, wherein they camped in high spirits. One 
single hour's advance the following day, the last day of 
December, crushed their hopes. The pleasant valley opened 
upon another dreary desert basin, and in a second dreary 
basin water was obtained by cutting the ice on a stream, 




Beginning of a Canyon 

Photograph by F. S. DeUenbau;;h 



Gloomy Days 195 

where they camped in latitude 41° 19' 55", "Here," says 
the indefatigable Lieutenant, 

we concluded the year 1843, and our New Year's eve was rather 
a gloomy one. The result of our journey began to be very un- 
certain; the country was singularly unfavourable to travel, the 
grasses being frequently of a very unwholesome character, and 
the hoofs of our animals were so worn and cut by the rocks, that 
many of them were lame, and could scarcely be got along. 

New Year's Day, 1844, therefore, was not as cheerful as 
had been anticipated a short time back. The dolce far 
niente period was still a long way off. Over gullies, sage- 
brush, sand hills, with no grass, the soil covered sometimes 
with a saline efflorescence, they trudged on south. The next 
day the travelling continued about the same with the addi- 
tion of snow and ice, as they held to the bed of the little 
stream. Steaming hot springs, black volcanic rock, hills 
with a burnt appearance, cinders and coal as if from a black- 
smith's forge, and a mud lake, all came along in a panorama 
from the Inferno. The camp at night was without water, 
without grass, without the remotest suggestion of comfort, 
in the midst of sage-bushes covered with snow. Several 
mules, by this time, had given out, and one horse was left 
behind on the trail. 

So, on I went. I think I never saw 

Such starved ignoble nature : nothing throve. 

Then there fell upon them for several days a thick, dark 
fog. A hundred yards was the limit of vision. The first 
day of this, January 3d, the men who went for the horses 
became lost and bewildered, and the whole outfit was long 
delayed in starting. Fremont now felt the seriousness of 
their isolation in this forbidding, unknown land, a land of 
rocks and sand and dried-up seas. He says: 

We had reached and run over the position where, according to 



196 Fremont and *49 

the best maps in my possession, we should have found Mary's 
Lake, or River. We were evidently on the verge of the desert 
which had been reported to us ; and the appearance of the country 
was so forbidding, that I was afraid to enter it, and determined 
to bear away to the southward, keeping close along the moun- 
tains, in the full expectation of reaching the Buenaventura 
River. 

The men were all ordered to walk, and the Lieutenant 
did the same, to lighten the task of the horses. After seven 
or eight miles they camped in the bed of a "hill torrent" 
without water. Through the fog at simset they saw the 
tops of the hills and in the early evening stars, for observa- 
tions, which put their latitude at 40° 48' 15". The next 
day the fog was worse. Very little progress was made and 
the condition of the animals caused Fremont increased 
anxiety, which was multiplied in the morning by one of the 
mules wandering into camp and dying there. Moving about 
two miles they 'found a better camp, where they remained. 
One of the men climbing a nearby mountain discovered 
that he rose above the fog-bank into sunlight. The fog 
continuing, Fremont and Preuss also climbed the mountain, 
the Lieutenant desiring to get some understanding of the 
surroundings if possible, while Fitzpatrick explored on the 
general level. 

The fog began to break at this moment and about sixteen 
miles west a column of steam, indicating hot springs, was 
seen in the south-westerly corner of a commimicating basin, 
to which the caravan was led in a day's hard travel over mud 
and sand. There was grass at the springs and comparatively 
the place was refreshing. The largest spring had a circum- 
ference of several himdred feet with a space at one end about 
fifteen feet in diameter where the water boiled up at regular 
intervals with much noise. The temperature near the mar- 
gin, the only place where they could take it, was 208° F., but 
it was thought to be much hotter in the middle. Fremont 



An Oasis 197 

gives 40° 39' 46" as the latitude of these hot springs, but this 
seems to be a mistake as those given on the U. S. G. S. maps 
are nearer 40° 49' 46". This oasis was a vantage point in the 
midst of the general desolation, and Fremont now resolved 
that before leaving it, or any other base, he would henceforth 
cause an examination of the country immediately ahead to 
be made. To inaugurate this policy, he took Godey and 
Carson and explored the neighbourhood of the hot springs, 
with the fortunate result of discovering springs and grass in 
a ravine where cottonwood trees grew, casting their shade 
upon the water. Such a sight in a desert is exhilarating, 
and dissipates the idea that grows after days of disappoint- 
ment, that water has absolutely vanished from the face of the 
earth. The cottonwoods were the first the Fremont party 
had met with for a long time and they were reminded by 
them of the green prairies and the multitudinous buffalo. 

An important find here was an established Indian trail 
which they knew would always lead to water, and they 
prepared to follow it. Fitzpatrick also had discovered not 
far off a little vale with fine grass and water, to which all 
the animals were driven to recuperate for a day. A dis- 
turbing circumstance was the tracks of Indians in the snow, 
indicating that these natives of the soil, though not in 
bodily evidence, were noting the doings of the band of 
interlopers. On the 9th the cavalcade wound its way 
across to the vale of the cottonwoods, where a camp was 
made. 

On the lOth of January, Fremont and Carson again 
pushed in advance of the main body, on the Indian trail 
along the western edge of Mud Lake. This was the lower 
eastern lobe of a valley having for its western lobe Smoke 
Creek Desert, with Granite Creek Desert as a neck between 
these and Black Rock Desert at the north. At the lower end 
of this Mud Lake Valley they found a grassy hollow in the 
mountain (Lake Range), and leaving a message or signal here 
for the following party to pitch camp at the place, Fremont 



iqS Fremont and '49 

and Carson continued up the hollow to see where it came out 
and what might lie beyond. The distance to the top was 
several miles, the last part in snow about a foot deep. When 
they arrived at the point where they could look into the 
country ahead they suddenly found themselves gazing in 
astonishment down about two thousand feet upon a vast 
sheet of green water at least twenty miles wide, extending 
into the distance. "It broke upon our eyes," exclaims 
Fremont, "like an ocean." The waves were "curling in the 
breeze" and the amazing sight fascinated the two explorers 
fatigued with endless mountains and desert wastes, and they 
sat still for a long time enjoying the remarkable transforma- 
tion. The lake was hemmed in by mountains; it dashed 
against the foot of the Sierra itself on the side opposite, or, 
rather, against the Virginia sub-range. 

At first Fremont thought this must be the long-sought 
Mary's Lake, but the ruggedness of its environment did 
not accord with the low rushy shores and open country 
described for Mary's Lake, and he "concluded it must be 
some unknown body of water, which it afterwards proved 
to be." The next day, the I2th of January, 1844, the 
whole party was encamped beside this beautiful lake, the 
water of which, though slightly salt, was palatable, and here 
they found was a favourite camp ground for Indians. Leav- 
ing the spot the following morning a broad Indian trail 
conducted them along the east shore of the lake southward. 
At first there was room enough for easy going but after a 
time the trail wound around the bases of the mountains, 
whose summits were three thousand feet above the surface 
of the lake beating its waves against them below the trail. 
This path came near proving impossible for the howitzer. 
A snow-storm swept across the lake, and waves five or six 
feet high broke in a line of foam upon the narrow beach. 
They were obliged to leave the howitzer, at last, on the 
rocks to be rescued in better weather the next day. 

In nine miles more along the lake side on the 14th of 



Pyramid Lake 199 

January they made a camp opposite an extraordinary rock 
rising out of the water, which they had been observing with 
much curiosity for many miles. They estimated its height 
as 600 feet above the lake, and it so reminded the Lieu- 
tenant of the Pyramid of Cheops, that he named the water 
Pyramid Lake It is singular that no one yet has charged 
him with comparing himself, because of this circumstance, 
with Rameses,or at least with Caesar in search of a Cleopatra. 
His detractors missed one opportunity. 

The altitude of the surface above the sea level he made 
4890. The U. S. Geological Survey records it as 3783. He 
was farther from the correct altitude here than at any other 
time, doubtless due to atmospheric changes which he had no 
way of checking up. "The position and elevation of this 
lake make it an object of geographical interest," he writes. 
" It is the nearest lake to the western rim, as the Great Salt 
Lake is to the eastern rim, of the Great Basin, which lies 
betv/een the base of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra 
Nevada ; and the extent and character of which, its whole 
circumference and contents, it is so desirable to know." 
Desirable of course geographically, yet just why should we 
then be so much concerned over the topography of our 
neighbour's territory? And the long journeys of Jedediah 
Smith, likewise, were somewhat mysterious though nomi- 
nally for hunting new beaver ground. There were prob- 
ably, in both cases, underlying motives which could not be 
published. 

Here they killed the last of the cattle which had been 
driven along for a reserve food supply, and after this their 
circumstances in this regard would be somewhat more pre- 
carious. On the 15th several Indians made their appearance, 
scantily clad; one who came into camp had only "a tunic 
of hare skins." This tunic was doubtless the regular rabbit- 
skin robe used by the Pai Utes, a very warm kind of cloak 
reaching from the shoulders to the ankles, made of rabbit 
skins twisted, sewed into a long rope, and then further 



200 Fremont and '49 

attached to each other side by side in the desired form. 
When these Indians killed a rabbit — a common animal 
throughout the Great Basin — they cut a slit in the abdomen 
and skilfully turned the skin' inside out as it were. It was 
then dressed in a fashion, turned hair side out, and was ready 
to be made part of a robe. I bought specimens to send 
back years ago in Arizona, but before having much to do 
with them I followed the practice of white men of placing 
them by an ant-hill for a day or two. 

This Indian told them as well as he could that there was 
a river at the end of the lake, but they could not make out 
whether it flowed into it or out, and Fremont began to 
revive the idea that this might be Mary's Lake. In the 
afternoon, having taken the Indian for a guide, they arrived 
at the groves of large cottonwoods which they had seen from 
some distance back, marking the position of the river, and 
they found a large fresh-water stream entering Pyramid 
Lake. "All at once," he says, "we were satisfied that it was 
neither Mary's River nor the waters of the Sacramento, 
but that we had discovered a large interior lake, which the 
Indians informed us had no outlet." He gives the length 
as thirty-five miles. The chief spoke in a loud voice as they 
approached the groves and immediately parties of Indians, 
all fat and in good physical condition, "armed with bows 
and arrows, issued from the thickets." The explorers made 
their camp in a strong position, latitude 39° 51' 13'', 
almost surrounded by the river with plenty of firewood, and 
felt themselves safe. Not far off, up the river, was the 
wickiup village of the Indians. The climate was soft and 
altogether this was a restful, invigorating locality. 

These Indians are known as Pai Utes, also as Paviotsoes, 
and they claim relationship with the Bannocks. Generally 
speaking the Pai Utes have not been warlike and have affili- 
ated with the whites, as labourers. Their mental attitude has 
been excellent, being occasionally distinguished by some very 
high moral qualities. Individuals and some bands have at 



Salmon Trout River 201 

times committed depredations, but they have been rarely 
murderers. They probably had been watching the Fremont 
party closely and had come to the conclusion that they were 
not bent on plunder. They brought salmon-trout from the 
river and the camp was soon revelling in feasts on this 
delectable fish, which was from two to four feet in length. 
It seems remarkable to find them in this river and lake 
absolutely unconnected with any other waters, but this 
occurs at other places and with other fish. Fremont named 
the stream Salmon Trout River; it is now the Truckee. The 
Indians drew a map on the ground to show that the river 
came from a lake in the south three or four days off, and they 
drew a mountain beyond it "and further still two rivers; 
on one of which they told us that people like ourselves 
travelled. Whether they alluded to the settlements on the 
Sacramento, or to a party from the United States 
which had crossed the Sierra about three degrees to 
the southward a few years before, I am unable to 
determine."^ . 

Continuing their march up the river on large trails, with 
the high Sierra snow-covered on the right, they camped in 
eighteen miles, about where Wadsworth now stands, and 
only about twenty-five miles from the site of Reno. The 
next morning they left the river, which here came sharply 
from the western mountains, flowing thence N. N. W. to the 
lake. With every stream Fremont still "expected to see the 
great Buenaventura; and Carson hurried eagerly to search, 
on every one we reached, for beaver cuttings, which he always 
maintained we should find only on waters that ran to the 
Pacific." After twenty miles they arrived at another river 
coming from the western mountains and flowing towards 

* He refers either to Joseph Walker or to Mr. Chiles, whom he later 
mentions as the only two men whom he knows "to have passed through the 
California mountains from the interior of the Basin." Jedediah Smith came 
the other way and Frdmont seems not to know about his trail across the 
Sierra in 1827, or about that of the Bartleson-Bidwell party of 1841. 



202 Fremont and '49 

the east. It was timbered with cotton woods, but there 
were no beaver cuttings. This is now called Carson River, 
and it sinks in Carson Lake not far to the eastward. This 
and the Truckee were on the emigrant roads of 1849 and 
later. 

The next day, the i8th, this new river swung around to 
the right, and "hoping it would prove a branch of the Buena- 
ventura we followed it down for about three hours and 
camped," From here, with Carson and Fitzpatrick, the 
country was reconnoitred. It was impossible to tell which 
way the main stream ran. Indian signal smokes were 
observed at intervals over the country, showing that the 
alarm of the stranger's presence was being transmitted 
from camp to camp. Going back to the caravan, an exami- 
nation of the condition of all the stock disclosed hoofs 
badly worn by the rocks, shoes having come off or worn out, 
and so many lame that Fremont considered it impossible 
to cross the country eastward to the Rocky Mountains. 
His announced intention had been to travel east after this 
swing through the Great Basin in search of the Buenaventura 
River, where he meant to rest and recuperate, and not go 
into the California settlements. They had no more horse- 
shoe nails; "every piece of iron that could be used for the 
purpose" had already been converted into them, and the 
extra shoes remaining were of no use. Probably they had 
no appliances for making nails from some of the surplus 
shoes. 

He decided to abandon altogether the stated plan of going 
east from here, and instead to cross the Sierra westward 
to the valley of the Sacramento wherever a practical pass 
could be found. "My decision," he writes, "was heard with 
joy by the people and diffused new life throughout the camp." 
He was still uncertain about the Buenaventura but he had 
not given up the desire to elucidate that mystery. It is 
evident that Carson and Fitzpatrick believed in the existence 
of the river, which is strange, for both knew about Jedediah 



Comfort Scorned 



203 



Smith, The next step was to cross the Sierra in winter, 
a task of formidable proportions, yet he could have wintered 
very comfortably on Salmon Trout River, and the question 
arises. Why did he not do it? There were many rabbits in 
the valleys and antelope in the foothills, not to mention 
pine nuts. The stock would have grown fat on the grass, 
and their hoofs would have become fit for rough travelling. 
Reconnaissance parties could have been sent out in all 
directions. But no! It was across the Sierra, regardless 
of adverse conditions, that the march must be made. 




CHAPTER X 

ACROSS THE SIERRA NEVADA IN WINTER 

A Bold Project — Americans not Wanted — Fifth to Scale the Sierra — ^Those 
who Went Before — New Indians and Pine Nuts — Sign Language — 
Chilly Days — Up the Hill and Down Again — Rocks on Rocks — Snow on 
Snow — Famine — Dog and Mule Steaks — Through the Pass — Down the 
American Fork — Preuss Wanders — Sutter's Fort. 



THE stupendous range of the Sierra Nevada, attaining 
towards the south an altitude of 14,500 feet, and 
gradually declining in height as it trends northward, 
presents along its entire eastern front for all these hundreds 
of miles a forbidding, precipitous face; the sixth and last of 
the great barriers against exploration and travel from the 
eastward, enumerated in an earlier chapter. Feasible 
passes are rare ; at the time when Fremont made the attempt 
to cross, they were practically unknown to white men; the 
moimtain range was not mapped, and the achievements 
enumerated below were not on printed record. No scientific 
man had been here before the Lieutenant. 

On the Basin side the passes open low, while on the other, 
or western, side they are left high up on the long and gradual 
slopes of the range in that direction, where these slopes or 
ridges and the river valleys generally offer convenient 
avenues of descent once the traveller from the eastward 
has conquered the summit. The passes, therefore, are more 
easily distinguished and approached from the east than from 
the west, being, to some extent, visible from below. In 
winter the snows on top lie extremely deep, the cold there 

304 



A Bold Project 205 

becomes Intense, and traverse by roads or trails hidden 
beneath the snow is precarious. When the Central Pacific 
Railway was completed it first became possible to ignore 
winter in crossing. The line was protected through many 
miles by massive timber-sheds fitting in places against the 
slopes of the mountains, and the traverse could be made 
with few obstructions. Upon these strong sheds, costing 
more per mile than the railway, the snow piled high (thirty 
feet I was told at one place when I crossed the first time, in 
March, 1873) and sometimes shot over them in roaring 
avalanches. The rotary snow-plough is now a great aid in 
keeping the line free. 

By rail it is but a few hours from winter to summer 
and the comfortable traveller sipping his after-dinner coffee 
and puffing nonchalantly at his fragrant Havana gazes 
across the interminable snow, smothering gulch, and forest, 
and peak, and barely gives it a second thought. He prob- 
ably knows nothing about Donner, or Fremont, or Smith, 
and is mainly interested in reaching Sacramento on time. 
But with limited food, and a train of half worn-out pack- 
horses, such as Fremont had, the traverse assumed a serious 
colour. Endurance, nerve, a clear brain, are necessities on 
such an expedition to avoid getting "demoralised," as the 
mountaineers say, that is to avoid losing one's head and 
one's "nerve." When this occurs, the game is up. 

The determination to make this crossing from the Great 
Basin to the Sacramento Valley in the month of January, 
1844, was one of the boldest acts in the courageous life of 
Fremont ; the ascent of Fremont Peak was a nursery task by 
comparison. From one point of view it seems to me strange 
that he did not continue southward along the foot of the 
range, where water and grass could be had, and the climate 
was mild. He had no government orders to cross to the 
Sacramento Valley, and he could have chosen any route he 
pleased for the return to the "States." Then, why did he 
want to go back by way of the Sacramento Valley ; why make 



2o6 Fremont and '49 

this difficult passage across the frozen Sierra at the worst 
season?. Was there an understanding with the circle that 
this expedition through the territory of Mexico must include 
a study of the passes to San Francisco Bay from this di- 
rection? Did his instructions call for an investigation and 
descent of the Buenaventura to the Bay, which it was 
intended to rescue from the British; or in failing to find 
a Buenaventura, was he not to go to San Francisco Bay 
anyhow? There was some deep reason, for the desire to 
cross the great range at this time, part of the "real purpose" 
of the circle, which could not be published. 

I surmise his chief mission, besides notes on the topo- 
graphy, was to seciire information about the fertile valleys 
of California, the attitude of the people towards Americans, 
the strength and distribution of the Mexican forces, the 
status of Alvarado, the late insurrectionary governor, and so 
on, much of which could be had at Sutter's Fort. It was 
patent to every one long before the date of the departure of 
this second expedition that a rupture with Mexico, and 
consequently war, was certain. The admission of Texas into 
the Union was constantly discussed and it was clearly only a 
matter of time. When it came Mexico would automatically 
be at war with the United States because of previous de- 
clarations and actions with reference to that expected event. 

Americans were prohibited from entering California 
anywhere. In the words of Almonte, the Mexican Minister 
to Washington, the Mexican government feared that all these 
settlers going to California "involved a project which time 
will discover." That is to say, they believed that the 
Americans intended to settle the country and annex it. It 
was consequently a forbidden land to citizens of the United 
States, but no definite action on the prohibition had yet been 
taken with regard to actual settlers, probably because the 
American Minister to Mexico had entered a protest. Diplo- 
matic relations between the two countries had been strained 
for a long time. The strong desire of the United States to 



Pathfinding 207 

secure California was well-known; several times negotiations 
for purchase had been started. Our navy was on the watch 
for developments, and in the event of the declaration of war, 
it was immediately to seize California. Acting on this plan, 
Commodore Jones, U. S. N., hearing in October, 1842, that 
the war had come, "captured" Monterey, by raising the 
American flag. On learning his mistake, he politely pulled 
down the flag with local apologies. According to Alfred 
Robinson, who was in California at the time, ' the Americans 
were elated-, and the wealthy Califomians not displeased. 
Alvarado, the latest revolutionary captain, was governor, 
but the people north of San Francisco Bay were opposed to 
those south of it, and there was no cohesion. General 
Micheltorena was on his way to supersede Alvarado under 
the old authority of Mexico, when the Jones affair took place. 
Alvarado said he much preferred the surrender to the 
Americans, and evidently was disappointed that Jones had 
withdrawn. California since then, and now, was politically 
in a more chaotic state than ever. Every entrance of armed 
Americans into California Alta, from the days of Jedediah 
Smith and General Ashley, had disturbed the Mexican 
government. How, then, would Fremont be received across 
the range? 

As an exploring expedition this had accomplished 
much in elucidating the peculiarities of the Great Basin; 
much to warrant the title of Pathfinder, subsequently 
bestowed on Fremont by his admirers to the wrath of some 
others, and now he is about to do some difficult pathfinding 
in midwinter on the slopes and summits of this greatest 
mountain range of what is now the United States, then still 
Mexican territory, a range which up to the moment of his 
resolve had been crossed by white men only five times, north 
of Tehachapi Pass, and not once by any one who had made a 
map and a record of the route followed. The first passage 

^ Life in California, by an American [Alfred Robinson]. New York, 
Wiley & Putnam, 1846. Describes the missions while still in operation. 



2o8 Fremont and '49 

was, as already noted, by Jedediah Smith in May, 1827, 
coming from the west; the second by Joe Walker, from the 
east in October, 1833, by way of Mono, Virginia, or some 
other pass of that vicinity; the third, also by Walker, on his 
return in 1834, coming east, by Walker Pass near the head of 
Kern River; the fourth, over Sonora Pass, by the "First 
Emigrant Train to California, "^ the Bartleson-Bidwell outfit 
of 1 841, a little more than two years before Fremont's 
arrival at this point. Bartleson, who was captain of this 
forlorn party, was not much of a man. With a few cronies 
he deserted the main body two or three times. 

This caravan, together with another in which was Father 
de Smet, was guided as far as the Soda Springs on Bear River, 
Idaho, by Thomas Fitzpatrick, the same who is now with 
Fremont. Arriving here they went up the north side of 
(West) Walker River, across Sonora Pass, in October, 1841, 
and dropped down the west slopes by means of the Stan- 
islaus River. Walker evidently went westward a little south 
of that, for he got into the Yosemite Valley, ever after 
claiming to have discovered it. He met with enormous dif- 
ficulties, though the month was October, and they endured 
much suffering. They were long finding a way down on 
the west, the horses at one place requiring to be lowered by 
ropes across a long slope of loose rocks. Seventeen horses 
were eaten and seven were lost on the way across. 

Smith crossed, according to some authorities, by or near 
Sonora Pass, but others who have made a careful study of 
his routes place it from the head of the American to the 
Truckee, and down the latter stream to the Great Basin.* 
The Chiles-Walker party, second division, in 1843, went down 
along the east front from the Humboldt to Owens River and 
lake and so around by Walker Pass. Fremont met Chiles 
(he spells it Chiles and also Childs) near Sutter's and learned 

» Century Magazine, vol. xix., N. S., p. io6. 

" The journals of Smith are lost and his routes are laid down from a few 
letters, and from statements of trappers. 




Yosemite Valley, California 

The Three limthcrs 
Photograph by United States Geological Survey 



Undue Haste 209 

from him that this southern or second division of his party 
lost all the waggons, sawmill machinery, saws, etc. These 
crossings of the Sierra, of course, were all by pack-train; it 
was deemed impossible at that time to take a waggon over. 
"The first waggons brought into California [beyond the 
Sierras] came across the plains in 1844 with the Townsend- 
Stevens party. They were left in the mountains and lay 
buried in the snow till the following spring," when they were 
taken down to the Sacramento Valley. ' This was by the route 
near Donner Lake and along Truckee River. The Bartleson- 
Bidwell party abandoned their waggons a few days after leav- 
ing the Great Salt Lake, made pack-saddles, and used them 
even on the oxen, which they desired to drive along for food. 
As yet nobody had crossed the Sierra in midwinter as 
Fremont intends to do. It is a mystery to me why he did 
not sojourn at the forks of Walker River, or back on Salmon 
Trout (Truckee) River, where there was grass, and an 
abundance of salmon trout, long enough to build up his 
stock and his men, and also to thoroughly reconnoitre the 
region, with three parties; under himself, Carson, and Fitz- 
patrick respectively. A delay of a couple of weeks at this 
season would have made little difference as far as the snow 
on the summit was concerned, but it might have disclosed 
a nearer route to a pass, and in that way have saved time 
and much wallowing through the snow. It appears singular 
to me that they should have gone at it so blindly. They were 
lucky, as it was, in not meeting a great storm such as over- 
whelmed the Donner party, and prevented them from even 
locating their frozen oxen." So on the theory that "All 's 

' "Life in California before the Gold Discovery," John Bidwell, Century 
Magazine, vol. xix., N. S., p. 173. 

' The Donner party later, in 1846-7, were caught by the snows near the 
present site of Truckee, California. There were eighty men, women, and 
children. Sutter sent two Indians with mule loads of beef to them. They ate 
not only the beef but the two Indians also. See C. F. McGlashan's History 
of the Donner Party, Sa.n Francisco, 1880, and The Expedition of the Donner 
Party, by Eliza P. Donner Houghton, Chicago, 191 1. 



210 Fremont and '49 

well that ends well," we will accompany the tireless Lieu- 
tenant on this hazardous effort to span the majestic heights, 
in the words of the "Poet of the Sierras," 

Where only the breath of white Heaven stirs, 

a mighty, an appalling, expanse of frozen silence, save for the 
wind and the whispering snow, rising into heavy clouds which 
at short intervals blanketed the cyclopean wall afresh. 
Naught was there but desolation; the playground of the 
elements. 

From the camp on Carson River in latitude 39° 24' 16'' 
they struck out to find a way through that frigid labyrinth of 
peaks and valleys, and though a heavy snow came at day- 
break on this January 19th, they went up the river, took a 
circuit over "a little mountain," and camped on the same 
river,-not far from the previous camp, in latitude 39° 19' 21", 
near the present site of Fort Churchill, 4319 feet above sea 
level. Continuing the next day up the same stream they 
camped again on it ''close to the mountains" (the Pine Nut 
Mountains, an outlying range), near the location of Dayton, 
Nevada, and not very far from where Carson and Virginia 
City now stand. The latter place was where Mark Twain put 
in some of his early days, and is the position of the famous 
Comstock Lode, where gold and silver mining operations 
have been carried to enormous proportions. Up to 1902, 
the output reached the value of $371,248,288. The depth of 
the shafts is very great. In 1873, I descended in the Savage 
Mine more than 1500 feet, and the depth has increased ever 
since. Besides these mines there are many others, with the 
more recent wonderful Tonopah, Goldfield, Bullfrog, etc., 
claims. Millions of bushels of wheat and other cereals are 
annually produced in this arid region by irrigation, while the 
residents own other millions of dollars worth of live stock. 
The most sanguine of Fremont's party would hardly have 
ventured to predict such results from a country which to 
them was so inhospitable. 







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Skirting the Sierras 211 

Fremont climbed a peak and obtained a view of the river 
(Carson) winding through a somewhat open valley (Carson 
Valley). Not another white man of course, except his own 
party, existed anywhere within hundreds of miles north, 
south, and east, and many leagues west. He felt inclined to 
go up this valley and mount the range by it. Had he done so 
he would have travelled over an afterwards famous "Cali- 
fornia Trail" of the Forty-niners, but he descended to camp 
with the resolve to go on south. The next day, going south, 
he came to another river, flowing northward. This was 
Walker River, where he camped, in latitude 39° 01' 53'', 
January 21st, near the present town of Yerington. 

Fourteen miles they went up it the following day, to the 
mountains, to the foot of Mount Wilson, where "one branch 
issued in the south-west [from a canyon], the other flowing 
from south-south-east along their base." A camp was 
established there after the Lieutenant had climbed to a 
height, as is the custom of explorers when working through a 
mountainous country, and saw a circular valley (Smith's 
Valley) beyond. They had been following an Indian trail 
(which went over the ridge on the south side of the canyon) , 
which they now perceived was leading directly towards a 
gorge in the farther side of this new valley, at the foot of the 
"main mountain which rose abruptly beyond." This trail 
still exists, where it has not been supplanted by a waggon 
road, and it is laid down on the United States Geological 
Survey map of the locality. It was plainly visible to Fre- 
mont and he concluded that the gorge was a pass, wherein 
he was correct, for it goes straight through into Antelope 
Valley, (see cut opposite) and opens a way on up to the sum- 
mit, but the snow still falling heavilj^ on the crest, he again 
decided to bear off to the south, and thenceforth pursued 
an exceedingly difficult and devious road. 

The town of Wellington, Nevada, is now located imme- 
diately at the mouth of this canyon, about twelve miles from 
Fremont's point of observation. From Wellington to the 



212 Fremont and '49 

camp near Markleeville, which the party finally reached in 
their roundabout course after many days' hard work, is only 
about twenty-one miles in an air line, and not more than 
thirty around by an easy road. And from where they stood 
to the site of the Bidwell camping place at the head of An- 
telope Valley, where they arrived January 30th, seven days 
later, was only about thirty miles by the trail they were on, 
almost level, after descending from the ridge along the edge 
of the canyon at their feet, and snowless. Of course, they 
did not know this; there were no maps, and there was no one, 
white or red, to inform them. Had it been summer, they 
doubtless would have discovered its advantage, but in winter 
everything looks different. I can sympathise with them and 
fully understand their perplexities, because I have been in 
somewhat similar situations, both summer and winter. 

As Fremont gives no compass directions, and his trail is 
not shown accurately here on any maps (no large scale, detail 
maps existing till those of the United States Geological Survey 
were made), it is sometimes difficult to precisely locate his 
path between the astironomical stations. Furthermore these 
stations cannot always be determined with precision, for the 
reason that his longitudes, owing to a derangement of the 
chronometer, are given much too far west. The latitudes 
seem to be exact, with the exception of the one for Carson 
Pass where they finally went over. He gives in his Report 
two sets of figures at this place ; the first for the " Long Camp," 
almost in the pass, exactly right, 38° 41' 57'', but the second 
for the pass itself, 38° 44', incorrect. This is perhaps a 
printer's error, yet he states it again in his Memoirs. It 
woiild be half-way between Carson and Luther Passes, where 
there is no pass, and where he did not go. The correct figures 
would be 38° 41' 44'', the minutes having been inadvert- 
ently dropped in the typesetting, and the seconds then 
becoming minutes. 

After the view from the peak he descended to the camp 
on Walker River in latitude 38° 49' 54'' (longitude from a 




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& 2 



« >. 






^ "9 



The Desert Basin 213 

map, 119° 11' 30") and decided to proceed south up the 
valley (Mason Valley) along the other, or east, branch, and 
following this plan they passed over the next day late, 
January 2^^, 1844, to another stream and camped twenty- 
four miles from the last place, in latitude 38° 36' 19", on East 
Walker River due west of Montello, Nevada, ,and the lower 
end of Walker Lake. This stream, owing to its direction, 
they thought might be the Buenaventura, but they found it 
was merely another part of the one they had left, and they 
were disappointed to have the mythical Buenaventura again 
elude them, 

Fremont now perceived that since Summer Lake he had 
been flanking the great range, and that the continued succes- 
sion of lakes and rivers was the drainage from the eastern 
slope of that range, which, having nowhere else to go, shut 
off from the sea, runs into these desert basins and vanishes. 
At last he had elucidated the exact situation. He had been a 
pathfinder, on practically new ground; probably no white 
man before had followed that route, and no one could now 
expect to find a Buenaventura River there. Besides Walker 
and Smith, Ogden had been in the Great Basin early in 
1827. His routes are discussed in a following chapter. 
Walker and Smith passed south and Ogden, apparently, 
north, of this particular stretch. Chiles crossed it from 
Malheur River, 1843. 

From an old Indian some pine nuts were purchased, the 
first they had met with. These Torrey afterwards described 
as from a new species of pine, Pimis monophylhis (now Pinus 
Sahiniana) when he classified the Fremont collections in 
botany. The cones are six or seven inches long and as much 
as six in diameter. It is a much larger tree than Pinus edulis, 
or pinyon. The man's language was unintelligible to them, 
as they were accustomed to that of the Shoshones. He 
belonged to the Washo tribe, who have a language aU their 
own, not a dialect but a distinct language, the tribe being 
one of the many small, separate stocks of California. In 



214 Fremont and '49 

1 9 10 only about three hundred Washes were left. The 
Fremont party communicated by means of signs, a practice 
so common among tribes of differing language that a distinct 
sign-language grew up universal with all Amerinds. ^ Several 
other Indians came as soon as they saw the white men were 
not warlike. They had not yet learned the white man's 
moral depravity. 

This old man agreed to guide them to a good pass. On 
January 24th, the day when they met him, he led them a short 
distance up the stream, on which they had camped, on a 
trail, and then leaving the creek headed southerly across a 
rough, broken country passing through a gap between snowy 
moimtains, not the main Sierra of course, but foothills north 
of Lake Mono. They descended from the gap into a basin 
where they camped on a small tributary of the last water in 
latitude 38° 24' 28". There were five of the Washos in camp 
that night, and the next morning twelve more came in from 
the mountains with bags of pine nuts. The Washos were 
armed only with bows and flint-headed arrows. 

On the 25th of January they proceeded accompanied by all 
the Washos, who doubtless were glad of some entertainment, 
when they found these white men were not bent on shooting 
them. In one of Bernard Shaw's plays when Lady Cicely 
is told that certain natives are dangerous she exclaims, 
"What, has some explorer been shooting them?" The trail 
led over a long ridge to a pure spring in the edge of some 
timber, chiefly nut pines. One of the Washos whose mocca- 
sins had given out was put on a horse and the men were 
surprised and amused to find an Indian who did not know 
how to ride ; not even how to guide the animal. Reaching a 
gap the guide refused to go farther, though he pointed out the 
way they must travel. They descended rapidly into a valley, 
but did not get fully down till dark. Their moccasins were 

' Consult The Indian Sign Language, by W. P. Clark, Captain Second 
Cavalry, U. S. A., and Garrick Mallery's contributions to the subject published 
by the United States Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C. 



A Sip of Nectar 215 

wet, the day having been warm enough to melt the snow, and 
they froze stiff on their feet ; it was difficult to prevent their 
feet also from freezing. ' But they soon made a comfortable 
camp with plenty of willows for fuel, and dried out. It is 
really surprising how comfortable a winter camp can be, 
provided there is wood and water in abundance. The 
change from the cheerless to the cheerful is like magic. 

By way of extra cheer Fremont now doled out a little 
brandy he had been saving. "Mr. Preuss questioned 
whether the famed nectar even, possessed so exquisite a 
flavour. All felt it to be a reviving cordial. " Doubtless it 
did them much good under the circumstances ; a stimulant at 
such a time soothes the nerves if it does nothing else, and 
enables them to .relax. Few explorers of these latter days, 
however, place any reliance as a muscular aid on any kind 
of alcoholic beverage; Vilhjalmar Stefansson, the Arctic 
traveller, takes along no alcohol, no tobacco, and does not 
care for tea and coffee, though he is not a teetotaller. 

This camp was on East Walker River, just below the 
forks, in Bridgeport Valley, and some three or four miles 
down the river from the present town of Bridgeport, latitude 
38° 18' 01", and according to Fremont's observation, 6310 
feet above sea level. A short distance off there is now a 
United States Geological Survey base mark indicating 6448 
feet. The camp remained here all the next day for recon- 
noitring purposes. Before sunrise the thermometer stood at 
2° Fahrenheit, but the sky was clear, and as often happens 
in that region, the day grew mild and delightful. One 
branch of the river came directly from the south, and from a 
height they saw beyond a comparatively low and open 
country, "which was supposed to form the valley of the 
Buenaventura," so the ghost is not yet laid! They were 

' Moccasins are excellent to travel in, especially the kind with rawhide 
soles, which was the kind they had, but they are apt to get soft and sloppy in 
wet weather. Years ago I wore them a great deal, shoes of leather not being 
always available. 



2i6 Fremont and '49 

looking into the rather open district which lies just north- 
west of Mono Lake, between their position and Mono Lake, 
and doubtless the expanse of the lake itself as well as the 
open country south of it added to the general appearance of 
a wide valley in that direction. The other branch (Buckeye 
Creek) forked at the foot of the mountains, and it was up 
this that the men understood the Indian to indicate they 
must go. Fremont was on ahead when the guide left. 
At the source of Buckeye Creek is Buckeye Pass across the 
Sierra and if Fremont had gone that way their troubles prob- 
ably would sooner have been over and they might speedily 
have reached a warm climate, but instead he chose for ex- 
amination Swager Creek, a branch of the Buckeye coming 
from the north. With Carson he went up it, travelling 
twelve miles. There was grass in sunny places and at the 
head of the valley they selected a good place to camp. 

The next day, January 27th, with Fitzpatrick, Fremont 
went ahead again, leaving Carson to follow to the selected 
spot with the entire outfit. He reached in a few miles 
beyond the limit of yesterday's reconnaissance the gate of the 
pass, "a narrow strip of prairie about fifty yards wide, 
between walls of granite rock, " with mountains on each side, 
evidently the place now called "The Devil's Gate" (lati- 
tude, 38° 21' 00", longitude, 119° 22' 00", scaled from a 
United States Geological Survey map). 

"At the time," says Fremont, "we supposed this to be 
the point into which were gathered the mountains between 
the two great rivers, and from which the waters flowed off 
to the bay. " The two great rivers meant must be the San 
Joaquin and the Sacramento, but it hardly seems possible 
that he thought this the pass through the Sierra. They 
were much impressed by the mountains and surprised to 
discover some hot springs (Fales Hot Springs). Beyond 
they came to another stream (West Walker River), and 
decided to go down its valley with the caravan, trusting that 
"it still would prove that of the middle stream between the 



Farewell to the Howitzer 217 

two rivers." It was after dark before, on the return, they 
reached camp. The whole cavalcade followed their tracks 
the next day, coming through the Devil's Gate, and after a 
hard journey of twelve miles encamped down West Walker 
River on a high point where some grass was exposed ; one 
of the most laborious days, so far, of the trip. The howitzer 
on the way had to be left behind, but its fate was not yet 
quite sealed, for they pulled it along when daylight once 
more permitted activity. The chronometer stopped and it 
had been going wrong from the Dalles, which accounts for 
lack of longitudes and for the erroneous ones given. 

Again proceeding on the 29th ahead of the main body, 
Fremont with a few men explored a way. They saw more 
Indians. These natives all appeared to be entirely friendly, 
stretching out handfuls of pine nuts to show their hospitality, 
and when it is remembered that these nuts were all they had 
to offer, their hospitality will be seen to be of a high order. 
"The principal stream [West Walker River] still running 
through an impracticable canon, we ascended a very steep 
hill, which proved afterwards the last and fatal obstacle to 
our little howitzer, which was finally abandoned at this place." 
Against Indians in the field it was of little use, but against 
soldiers — Mexicans for instance — it would have been effec- 
tive, for Mexicans were civilised and therefore in battle would 
stand up in rows to be shot at. They left it, however, with 
deep regret, feeling that they had deserted a friend — at least 
Fremont did. 

The stock of provisions remaining by this time was 
alarmingly low. The daily subsistence was eked out with 
the pine nuts they were able to buy from the Indians; and 
they had peas, a little flour, some coffee, and a quantity of 
sugar. They had lost another chance to reach a good pass, 
Sonora Pass, when they came through the Devil's Gate. 
Instead of turning down West Walker River as they did, 
they should have turned np. They were not more than 
twelve or fourteen miles by the trail from that pass. But the 



2i8 Fremont and '49 

topography was unknown, the guide had not come this far, 
the snows obhterated the trails, and even with Carson and 
Fitzpatrick, skilled as they were, the way was not clear. 
But Sonora Pass being about a thousand feet higher than 
the one they finally traversed, the snow would have been 
correspondingly deeper and it is doubtful if they could have 
made the passage. Down the river, below where the can- 
non was left, a young Washo of the band they met finally 
agreed to go as guide. The Indians told about a party of 
white men who had crossed the mountains here about two 
years before, and they pointed out the way they had gone. 
They declared that it would be impossible now; the others 
had gone over in summer. 

Fremont thought they referred to Chiles or Walker, the 
only two men, he says, whom he knew to have passed over 
from the Great Basin, but they meant the Bartleson-Bidwell 
caravan of 1841. The Indians indicated, by pointing to the 
snow on the mountains, drawing their hands across their 
necks, and raising them above their heads, that the traverse 
could not be accomplished in winter. They pointed south as 
the way to go, where there was a pass with white people 
living near it — probably Tehachapi Pass, at the very 
southern end of the range. With a late start, and a imited 
party again, the expedition proceeded on January 30th, 
those who had been kept back by the cannon and other 
difficulties having finally caught up. The young Washo 
led them on down West Walker River, which "immediately 
opened out into a broad valley, furnishing good travelling." 
This was the head of Antelope Valley, (at the extreme lower 
end of which the river passes through the "gorge" they had 
noticed when they climbed the heights on this river lower 
down, near their camp of January 22d) where they thought a 
pass was located. They were now down to their former level, 
and only about twenty miles along the level valley the other 
(south-west) side of the site of Wellington, Nevada, with an 
easy road between. They had made the difficult and trying 




•••?5 ""^^^" '^"^ " ■''^•'•'^^" 



Showing Pttoont's Approach to Carson Pass by Way of Antelope Valley, 1844. First Crossing in Winter, by White Men, of the Sierra Nevada 

MarLleevUle Sheet (reduced) U. S. Geological Survey Map 



Hard Going 219 

circuit referred to above. Of course they did not then 
reahse that they had come out so near their former position. 

The picture at page 211 shows the outlying range now on 
their left, hardly less magnificent than the main mass of the 
Sierra itself. A few miles down the valley the guide pointed 
out the spot where the whites the Indians had told about 
(Bartleson-Bidwell party) " had been encamped before they 
entered the mountain." ' Not a great distance below this 
Fremont halted for camp, on the river bottom where there 
was no snow. They made beds of long grass and had fires 
of large dry willows. For one night they were comfortable, 
though not too well fed. Latitude 38° 37' 18". 

The last day of January, 1844, saw them starting again 
on their way to find a pass across the icy summits. Cross- 
ing West Walker River, they travelled easily, following the 
guide, on a broad trail over gradually rising ground along 
the western edge of Antelope Valley in a northerly direction, 
through a gap formed by a spur from the mountains on the 
left, looming dark and threatening. When they reached 
" the upper part of the pass," snow began to fall heavily. 
Other Indians, who had come along as company, speedily 
departed. The guide kept on, shivering and miserably cold. 
"As night began to approach," Fremont remarks, "he 
showed great reluctance to go forward. I placed him 
between two rifles, for the way began to grow difficult. 
Travelling a little farther, we struck a ravine [still going 
north] which the Indian said would conduct us to the river." 
The snow was falling on his naked skin and he was so mani- 
festly suffering that Fremont let him go. He departed for a 
hut which he said was nearby, and where he doubtless was 
able to make a fire and wrap himself up beside it. 

' This fixes this position with some precision, as Bidwell says, "We were 
now camped on [West] Walker River at the very eastern base of the Sierra 
Nevada. . . . We ascended the mountains on the north side of [West] 
Walker River to the summit [Sonora Pass]." Century Magazine, vol. xix., N.S., 
pp. 127-128. 



220 Fremont and '49 

In descending from the pass they had seen before them, 
that is to the west, " a great continuous range along which 
stretched the valley of the river," upon which, about dark, 
they reached a place where there were large trees and made 
camp in latitude 38° 37' 18", according to page 229 of the 
Report, but on page 325 in his Table of Latitudes, etc., he 
gives this as the latitude of the camp of the 30th of January, 
which appears to be correct. At the same time he notes in 
the Table that the January 30th camp was on the same 
stream as the camps of the i8th and 19th of January, which 
was Carson River, a mistake as it was on West Walker 
River in Antelope Valley, a position confirmed by the 
vicinity of the site of Bidwell's camp, of 1841, pointed out by 
the guide. The latitude given in the text for the camp of 
the 31st was that of the 30th though the former was miles 
north, but the Table states the latitude correctly. Had 
Fremont given compass directions the exact plotting of his 
trails would be easier. They had made, according to the 
Report, twenty-six miles this day, and had lost three mules, 
leaving sixty-seven animals still available. 

Their camp was soon crowded with Washo Indians, 
nearly naked, who evidently had been on a netting expedition 
for rabbits, as they had their nets with them. These nets, 
in use by many tribes (I even found a net made of sealskin 
in use among Siberian Eskimo for catching seals near shore), 
are about three feet wide and forty feet long, made of wild 
hemp, milkweed bark, or cedar bark. In a rabbit drive a 
number of nets are joined end on end, to form a wide semi- 
circle. The hunters go back a distance and with much 
noise converge towards the net, driving the frightened 
rabbits, which leap through the nets and are enmeshed in 
them exactly as fish are in sea nets. 

Fremont took about a dozen of the most intelligent 
looking Indians and explained to them as well as he could 
where the party had come from and where they were going. 
One old man informed him that when there was no snow it 



A Desperate Chance 2:^1 

was six sleeps to the settlements of the whites to the west, 
but that now the snow was too deep to get over. He urged 
that they should follow down the river to a lake where there 
were many fish and no snow. There they could remain 
till spring. From this Fremont then erroneously concluded 
that he was on the stream he had previously named 
Salmon Trout River (Truckee), but he was actually on 
East Carson River.' He replied that his men and horses 
were strong and that he intended to make the attempt, and 
showing bales of scarlet cloth and trinkets, offered to pay 
well for a guide. 

An intelligent young man who had been to the white 
settlements consented to go. The old chief told them that 
if they could get through, they would, at the end of three 
days, come do\\m to grass six inches high with no snow, but 
as if to emphasise the fact that the passage was still to be 
attempted, snow again began to fall, and it fell all night, and 
it fell all day, and there was no end of snow. The Lieutenant 
now explained to his men that it was absolutely necessary 
to get across the summit of the range ; that the beautiful and 
salubrious Sacramento Valley where Carson had been fifteen 
years before was less than a hundred miles away ; that almost 
directly west, as he knew from his observations, only about 
seventy miles, was the great farming establishment of the 
famous Captain Sutter, where ample supplies could be ob- 
tained. This was well received and all made ready for the 
final struggle to surmount the formidable and grim snow- 
buried peaks before them. The guide much to his delight 
was well fitted out with blanket, moccasins, leggings, etc., in 
addition to some blue and scarlet cloth for his pay. All the 
paraphernalia of the expedition was completely overhauled. 



' The rivers, gathering numerous branches on the slopes of the Sierra, and 
some uniting in the valley, some separately dying out, were a confusing prob- 
lem to early explorers, as indeed was the entire Great Basin drainage. 
Fremont was not first to propose the solution but was first to elucidate it. 



'^'^2 Fremont and '49 

They remained here on February ist and added to their 
provisions the dog, now fat, which had come with them all the 
way from Bear River. On the morning of the 2d, the snow 
having ceased, the cavalcade was once more on the way. 

They crossed the river on the ice and leaving it immedi- 
ately went up the valley of a tributary stream, apparently 
West Carson River. About Diamond Valley they returned 
over a ridge to East Carson River. " The people were un- 
usually silent, for every man knew that our enterprise was 
hazardous, and the issue doubtful." The snow was very 
deep and a system of changing road-breakers was adopted. 
They passed two low huts, entirely covered with snow, in 
each of which a family of Washos was living. Travelling 
along the river a httle farther, they camped on the bank of 
a creek (Markleeville Creek) in four feet of snow. Carson 
found a hillside where enough bunch-grass was exposed by 
wind and sun to afford the animals feed for the night. They 
had travelled sixteen miles this day over comparatively easy 
country and they now had the real snow battle before them. 
They were now very near the site of the present settlement 
of Markleeville, at an altitude of 6760 feet by boiling point. 
On February 3d, the Markleeville camp was left behind and 
they proceeded up Markleeville Creek, the snow being so 
deep in the hollows that they were obliged to travel along 
steep hillsides, and over spurs, which more than doubled the 
labour. Reaching a fine spring, shaded by a cedar, they 
camped by it and sent the stock back the few miles to the 
last place where some grass was exposed, and they spent the 
remainder of the day in breaking a road to the foot of a hill 
they would next have to climb. A number of Indians came 
around on snowshoes made of a circular hoop, about a foot 
in diameter, with the centre filled in with a network of bark. 

February 4th saw them early at their task, with Fremont 
and two or three men ahead breaking the road, each leading 
a horse. It was not possible to travel anywhere except on 
steep slopes and they were covered with an icy crust which 



A Dead Halt 223 

occasionally sent a horse to the bottom, some three hundred 
feet below. Late in the day they came to a place where in 
summer the stream falls over a small precipice. A little 
farther on over a ridge, they saw an open basin about ten 
miles across, "whose bottom presented a field of snow. At 
the farther or western side rose the middle crest of the 
mountain, a dark looking ridge of volcanic rock. " This was 
the basin at the sources of West Carson River, but it is not 
so wide as stated. 

In the afternoon they attempted to strike across towards 
the pass indicated by the guide "but after a laborious plung- 
ing through two or three hundred yards our best horses gave 
out, refusing to make any further effort; and for the time we 
were brought to a stand. The guide informed us that . . . 
here began the difficulties of the mountain ; and to him, and al- 
most to all, our enterprise seemed hopeless. " Fremont went 
back a short distance and met Fitzpatrick, who told him that 
they had been all day trying to get up the hill out of the valley, 
but only the best horses had succeeded. Even without their 
packs most of the animals were too weak to sustain sufficient 
effort. All along the trail back to the spring horses were 
floundering in the snow, and saddles, stores, and general bag- 
gage were scattered. Fremont immediately camped where 
he was with his party, and told Fitzpatrick to camp at the 
spring and have Tabeau take all the animals back to the last 
grass (near Markleeville) . They covered the surface of the 
snow where they were to sleep with small pine boughs, on 
which they laid their blankets, and I can endorse this method 
as making one of the most comfortable beds possible, either 
on ground or on snow. Usually they slept in an Indian 
lodge which was carried along, but this night it was far from 
available. The night was clear and sharp with a temperature 
of 10° Fahrenheit, with a strong wind, making this one of 
the "bitterest" nights they had experienced. Had a heavy, 
prolonged snow-storm now set in they would have fared ill. 

Two Washes joined them here, one an old man who made 



224 Fremont and '49 

them understand that he considered their situation desperate ; 
that before them was piled rock on rock, snow on snow, and 
that even if they got through the pass the precipices on the 
other side would prevent progress with the horses, and that 
all of them and the animals too would perish. On hearing 
this harangue the young Chinook Indian who had accom- 
panied the expedition from the Dalles, with an idea of seeing 
the world and the white men of California, covered his head 
with his blanket and broke into lamentations. 

The night was too cold for sleep and they were quickly up 
in the morning by the fire where the worthy guide was seen 
shivering. Fremont in sympathy threw over the man's 
shoulders one of his own blankets. Presently they dis- 
covered that he had vanished and they did not see him again. 
Some of the men went to work to gather in the scattered 
property while others made sleds and snowshoes with which 
Fremont intended to go over to the pass and reconnoitre. 
He states that this camp of February 5th was in latitude 
38° 42' 26", but this apparently should be 38° 41' 26". 

On the next day, February 6th, with Fitzpatrick, Carson, 
and some of the others, all on snowshoes, he crossed the basin, 
travelling single file, and reached the top of one of the peaks 
to the left of the pass. From this point they were rejoiced 
to see down into the great valley to the west, and Carson 
recognised the Coast Range beyond it. They got back to 
camp excessively fatigued by the unusual method of travel- 
ling. The snow was generally five feet deep but in places 
twenty, as they saw where they set fire to old tree tnmks to 
make camping sites. On the way back one of the men felt 
that his feet were freezing. Luckily Fitzpatrick was a man 
of resources. He set fire to an old dry cedar and stopped 
there with the man till he was dried out and warm, when they 
came comfortably in. 

The whole party were now several days getting the 
baggage across the basin to the pass, by means of sleds; the 
horses being driven light. The constant glare of the sun on 



Eating the Dog 225 

the snow inflamed the men's eyes, producing what is known 
as snow-bHndness, a most painful trouble, as I know from a 
touch of it. The tears flow steadily from one's eyes and 
there is a sensation of burning sand in them, with inability 
to see in severe cases. Fortunately there was a supply of 
black silk handkerchiefs with which the worst effects were 
warded off. The Indians blacken their cheeks below the 
eyes with charcoal; Eskimos wear goggles. On the nth the 
situation "became tiresome and dreary, requiring a strong 
exercise of patience and resolution," remarks Fremont. 
Fitzpatrick sent word that he could not get the horses along 
even where the party had marched and purposely tramped 
the snow down. They were plunging about or lying half 
buried in the snow. He was directed to get them back to the 
grassy spot, and then with mauls and shovels open and beat 
a road ahead, while Fremont and the others worked towards 
them in a similar way. All of the 12th and the 13th was 
spent at this task. A party of Indians passed on snow- 
shoes going down to the west to fish for salmon, and this 
thought of salmon was invigorating. But food must be had 
now and that evening permission was given Godey to kill the 
"little dog Tlamath, which he prepared Indian fashion; 
scorching off the hair, and washing the skin with soap and 
snow, and then cutting it up into pieces which were laid on 
the snow. Shortly afterward the sleigh arrived with a supply 
of horse meat ; and we had to-night an extraordinary dinner 
— pea soup, mule and dog. " 

This camp was close to Carson Pass, latitude 38° 41' 57". 
Fremont calls it, in his observation notes, the "Long 
Camp." With Preuss on the 14th he climbed "the highest 
peak to the right, or north." There are two. Red Lake and 
Stevens, the latter 10,100 feet, the other 150 feet lower. It 
was one of these they surmounted and from its summit they 
had "a beautiful view of a mountain lake" at their feet. On 
his small map of the pass Fremont puts this down as "Moun- 
tain Lake," and later as Lake Bonapland. It was also 



226 Fremont and '49 

called Lake Bigler. It was afterwards named Lake 
Tahoe. The altitude is 6225 feet. With Dodson he re- 
connoitred beyond the pass on the i6th and 17th, finding 
a practicable way. Returning to the Long Camp, it 
was found that all the animals and the baggage had been 
brought up, and on February 20, 1844, they crowned their 
success by camping on the summit of the pass, 9338 feet 
above sea level according to Fremont's calculation by 
boiling point; 8634 are more recent figures. Fremont 
gives the latitude of the pass, Carson Pass, as 38° 44', as pre- 
viously stated, and shown to be wrong, through a printer's 
error. The latitude of Long Camp being 38° 41' 57", it is 
plain that the camp at the summit of the pass, very near 
Long Camp, could not be 38° 44^ The minutes were 
dropped by error, and can be determined from the Long 
Camp latitude. The 44' then being transferred to 44'' 
where they belong, we have as the actual and correct latitude 
of the pass, 38° 41' 44". The longitude given, 120° 28', is, 
like all Fremont's longitudes through here, incorrect. 
Scaled from a map the longitude is about 119° 59' 00". 

Fremont now felt the relief of success, for while the de- 
scent might be difficult, they would be travelling, "From 
lands of snow to lands of sun, " and each hour and day would 
extricate them further. On February 21st, they started 
down, following in a direction north-north-west along a ridge 
between Silver Fork of the American River, and Strawberry 
Creek tributary of the same, with views of Lake Tahoe on the 
right, and on the left, far down, what they thought was the 
Bay of San Francisco. Yet so often had they been deceived 
that they thought even now it might be some mistake, dread- 
ing "again to find some vast interior lake, whose bitter waters 
would bring us disappointment. On the southern shore 
of what appeared to be the bay could be traced the gleaming 
line where entered another large stream; and again the 
Buenaventura rose up in our minds." At night they saw 
fires which seemed cheerful and to be in answer to theirs, 



Down the American 227 

apparently they were so near. Afterwards these were dis- 
covered to be Indian fires eighty miles away. 

They worked their way down through snow and ice, 
eating mules and horses as they went, having nothing else. 
On the 23d in reconnoitring with Carson Fremont slipped 
and fell into the river they were following. He had some 
difficulty in recovering his equilibrium in the icy water and 
Carson, who was with him, thinking he was hurt, dove in to 
help him. Fremont lost his gun and they were detained 
long enough to dry out by a fire. Continuing down the 
stream on February 24th a position was obtained by obser- 
vations which Fremont made at three o'clock in the morning, 
latitude 38° 46' 58", where they reached the main stream, the 
South Fork of American River, which flows almost due west. 
The animals suffered for grass but on this day green grass 
began to show. The river was a torrent, and ever37where 
were huge trees. The next day, Fremont, being now certain 
they were going right, left Fitzpatrick to come on as he could, 
and he, with Preuss, Talbot, Carson, Derosier, Towns, Proue, 
and Jacob Dodson, went ahead to reach Sutter's as soon as 
possible and send back supplies. 

On the 26th they came to a fork (Silver Creek) nearly as 
large as the one they had descended, saw some flowers in 
bloom, and killed a mule for food, boiling the head of the 
animal for soup. It "made a passable soup," he says, "for 
famished people. " The lack of grass thus far on the western 
slopes made the condition of the worn-out animals precarious ; 
one night without it would have finished them. The way 
led through dense forest, the horses were lost, or lagged feebly 
behind, and conditions were not improving as rapidly as 
Fremont had anticipated. On the first day of March, the 
surroundings changed for the better. There was an abun- 
dance of fresh green grass, but Derosier, who had wandered '^ 
off, came into camp with his mind deranged from the priva- 
tions of the last weeks; Towns, another of the men, went to 
sw^m in the river although it was icv cold and a torrent. 



228 Fremont and '49 

His mind too was wandering. Preuss got lost and did not 
come back, so the tribulations were not yet passed. They 
had now fotmd a trail and continued on it. They came to 
some Indian huts where were acorns roasted, to which they 
helped themselves, leaving some small articles in payment for 
the absent owners. On March 4th they camped in more 
open country at what they called the Beautiful Camp. 

Preuss was lost three days. Then he found the party on 
March 5th, having fallen upon their trail. The abundance 
of grass which they had now had for several days invigorated 
the horses and permitted riding again, and they were able to 
get ahead at the rate of four miles an hour, riding alternately. 
The coimtry was "surpassingly beautiful" and there were 
plenty of deer. Winter at last was far behind. On the 6th 
they came to the northern branch of the American River, 
which, uniting with the one they had descended, formed a fine 
stream which at first they took for the Sacramento. They 
went down the right bank. A few Indians were met but 
they could not imderstand them and went on, eating for their 
lunch some acorns. The valley was covered with the beauti- 
ful California poppy and other brilliant flowers, the grass was 
smooth and green, the groves open; altogether a totally 
different landscape from that of a few days previous. 

A neat little adobe house was presently discovered, but 
only a few Indians were there; the place was abandoned. 
Farther on they came out into a broad open valley and also 
to a large village of Indians neatly dressed. One spoke 
Spanish well. He told them where they were, and that the 
Sacramento was ten miles below, telling them also that he 
was one of Captain Sutter's vaqueros, or herders. The 
Sutter Fort was, in fact, not far off and the vaquero 
obligingly led the way. Fording the American River they 
proceeded to follow the Indian, and in a few miles met 
Captain Sutter himself, who received them cordially, leading 
them to his house, where rest and refreshment imstinted 
were theirs. 



A Forlorn Band 



229 



As soon as possible the next morning, with provisions and 
fresh horses, Fremont started rapidly back to the relief of 
Fitzpatrick and the others of the rear party. On the second 
day, he met them, "and a more forlorn and pitiable sight than 
they presented cannot well be imagined. They were all on 
foot — each man weak and emaciated — leading a horse or 
mule as weak and emaciated as themselves." Many horses 
had fallen over precipices, some with their packs on, losing 
much that was valuable; among other things all the plants 
collected since leaving Fort Hall. Of the sixty-seven horses 
and mules with which they had started to cross the Sierra, 
only thirty-three reached the Sacramento Valley. Camp 
was made at once and a substantial meal of beef, bread, and 
salmon relieved the famine. The following day, March 8, 
1844, the whole party camped, once more together, at 
Sutter's Fort. 




CHAPTER XI 



SUTTER S FORT TO LAS VEGAS 



New Helvetia and the Governor Thereof — A Declaration of Independence — 
Gold Discoveries — Up the San Joaquin Valley — Wonderful Flowers — • 
An Old Mission Described — Wild Horses — Tehachapi Pass — A Sudden 
Transformation — The Mohave Desert and Beyond — A Strange Forest of 
Yucca Trees — The Inconstant River and the Spanish Trail — A Scalp 
for a Scalp — Poor Little Pablo — The Springs of Las Vegas. 



SUTTER'S FORT, where the Second Fremont Expedi- 
tion had now arrived, was one of the most important 
places in CaHfornia at this time, and we shall hear 
more of it in the following pages. It was located at the 
junction of the American River and the Sacramento,- the 
site of the present city of Sacramento. It was about 150 
yards long by fifty yards wide, built of adobe, or sun-dried 
brick, with outer walls approximately fifteen feet high 
and an inner wall about ten, the space between the two, 
some twenty -five feet, being occupied as stores, shops^ 
etc. Sutter, himself, lived in a separate house within the 
enclosure. 

The armament consisted of sixteen or eighteen "short" 
cannon and carronades of iron, of various sizes and bores 
bought from ships, and two fine bronze field-pieces with 
caissons, which came in the large amount of materials 
Sutter bought from the Russians when they were obliged to 
abandon their settlements at Ross and Bodega, at the end of 
1840. He took all stock, houses, arms, ammimition, utensils, 
cattle, etc., for a consideration of $30,000, which he after- 

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John A. Sutter 231 

wards was unable to fully pay.' Fremont states that an 
annual payment was made in grain. ' 

John A. Sutter (see portrait opposite) was of Swiss 
parentage and was bom in Baden in 1803. He had arrived 
in California in July, 1839, via Missouri, Santa Fe, Van- 
couver, and Honolulu, a naturalised American. He was of 
an agreeable personality and made friends easily. A month 
after his entrance to California at Monterey, he went up the 
Sacramento River, and settled on the site of his "New 
Helvetia." He became a Mexican citizen by 1840, and 
Alvarado, the revolutionist, then in power, made him an 
ofRcial of the Government. The same year, he bought out 
the Russians, and soon after began his celebrated fort. He 
obtained a land-grant of eleven square leagues, soon owned 
horses, sheep, and cattle by the thousand (2,000 head 
of cattle and 500 horses came in his deal with the 
Russians), called himself "Governor of the Fortress of New 
Helvetia," adopted a sort of undress uniform with side 
arms buckled aroimd him, and altogether was monarch of 
all he surveyed. 

This Fortress of New Helvetia had become almost too 
powerful for the peace of mind of the Mexican government, 
and Wilkes says that he heard there was jealousy of the 
power and influence of Sutter, "who was using all his 
energies to render himself impregnable." He also states 
that it was thought that only the force which now was at the 
command of Sutter prevented some attempt to dislodge him. 
Bidwell also states that Sutter strengthened his fort with 
the Russian cannon as soon as possible "because of the 
jealousy or fear the native authorities had" of him, especi- 
ally as the fort was becoming a resort for Americans, who, 

' Armament as given by Duflot de Mofras, Exploration du territoire de 
I'Oregon, etc., p. 459. John Bidwell says Sutter obtained from the Russians 
"40 pieces of cannon, together with some old muskets, some, or most of which, 
were those lost by Napoleon in the disastrous campaign to Moscow." " Early 
California Reminiscences." Out West Magazine, vol. xx., p. 183. Sutter says 
he had 10 cannon mounted and 50 armed Indians. 



232 Fremont and '49 

it was rumoured, might use and capture the country.^ 
The place was capable, according to Fremont, of admit- 
ting a garrison of a thousand. There were muskets and 
rifles, said Duflot de Mofras, sufficient for sixty or eighty 
men not counting pistols, with good ammunition in abund- 
ance. At the time of Fremont's arrival, the garrison 
consisted of forty Indians in uniform, one of them always 
on duty at the gate, and there were about thirty white 
men. 

Was it not worth while, in any contemplated occupation 
of CaHfomia, to know something about this strong establish- 
ment so near the Bay of San Francisco, whose fame had 
been carried to the Far East ? The ' ' Governor ' ' of this imique 
and independent fort stood on no ceremony with those who 
opposed his will; he exercised a firm jurisdiction. Numbers 
of Americans were taking up land under his grant, relying 
on the fort as a rendezvous in case of trouble, and the embryo 
city was already exceedingly prosperous. The master mind 
of the colony was incensed when Alvarado made an agree- 
ment with the Hudson Bay Company, permitting the em- 
ployes of it to trap along the Sacramento, and his spirit as 
well as that of the colony is reflected in a letter he wrote on 
the subject, in which he declared: "The people don't know 
me yet, but soon they will find out what I am able to do. It 
is to late now to drive me aut of the coimtry the first step 
they do against me is that I will make a Declaration of 
Independence and proclaim California for a Republique 
independent from Mexico." Further stating that he had 
reinforcements near, and could secure in Missouri many 
more men, he continues: "That is my intention sir if they 
lete me not alone, if they will give me satisfaction, and pay 
the expenses what I had to do for my security here, I will be 
a faithful Mexican, but when this Rascle of Castro should 
come here, a very warm and hearty welcome is prepared for 

^Oui West Magazine, vol. xx., p. 184. 



Gold Found 233 

him."' Evidently the independence of California began 
with the Governor of New Helvetia. 

The aforesaid Castro had become alarmed at the in- 
creasing immigration by way of Oregon, and called attention 
to that danger. Vallejo, the comandante militar shared these 
forebodings regarding "the invasion that on all sides is 
threatened. " But the Americans continued to arrive, 
nevertheless; those around the Sutter establishment, as else- 
where, concerning themselves with agriculture, in which 
Sutter himself was engaged to the extent of huge fields 
adjoining his fort worked by Indian labour. He was also 
preparing a number of Indian girls for occupation in a 
woollen factory which he projected. 

Although gold in placers had been discovered near Los 
Angeles as early as 1841, and, indeed, is said to have been 
picked up in that neighbourhood in 1834, nobody as yet 
thought much about it, perhaps for the reason that its 
existence was not generally known to the enterprising 
Americans. Finds were reported from Santa Clara Valley 
in 1833, and even earlier than that, Jedediah Smith, on his 
notable first crossing of the Sierra, in 1827, had found gold 
"near Mono Lake," some say, but it was probably on the 
American where his sojourn gave the river its name. But 
it needed the sudden surprise, which came later, at a mill 
building for Sutter, to strike the world's imagination to the 
burning point, and produce the wonderful "Days of '49." 
The richness of California, in an agricultural way, had been 
abundantly shown by the Mission establishments, and the 
exhibit, we may be sure, had not been overlooked by cer- 
tain enterprising gentlemen in the Far East; but when the 
Sutter's mill gold find came, the whole situation ran away, 
and for the time agriculture was forgotten. 

' California tinder Spain and Mexico, by Irving Berdine Richman, p. 271 ; 
— an admirable and accurate work on the subject. Bidwell says this letter 
was forwarded to Mexico and that 500 troops were sent to break up Sutter's 
Fort, but it was two years before this force arrived. Then Sutter sent the 



234 Fremont and '49 

The pioneer Chiles, whose caravan, in two sections, had 
preceded Fremont, from the camp near Kansas City, across 
the mountains and valleys intervening between the Missouri 
and New Helvetia, was met with here, as well as John 
Bid well of the 1841 Bartleson-Bidwell party. Chiles was 
already established on a farm across the river, having re- 
ceived a grant from the Mexican government. He had 
come with one division, from the mouth of Malheur River 
at Snake River, to Pitt River and down the Sacramento to 
Sutter's Fort. The other division, as previously mentioned, 
had proceeded down the Humboldt and along the east foot 
of the Sierra to, and past, Owens Lake and into California by 
a southern pass, but they had lost all their waggons with 
the contents on the way. The Hastings party came in 1843, 
via Oregon, and the leader became one of the prominent men. 

Fremont remained at Sutter's, the latitude of which he 
gives as 38° 34' 42' V till March 22d, twelve days, in order to 
prepare for the return journey by the south, make new pack 
saddles, and so on. During this time he imdoubtedly posted 
himself on the state of California politics and the attitude 
towards Mexico; also on the character of the Mexican 
soldiers.^ Derosier, one of his best men, wandered off 
and was not heard from again, but he appeared two years 
later in St. Louis. Neal, his blacksmith, wished to re- 
main in the country, and, although inconvenienced, Fre- 
mont consented, obtaining for him employment with Sutter 



governor, Micheltorena, congratulations and expressions of loyalty. {Out 
West Magazine, vol. xx., p. 183.) 

' The longitudes of Sutter's and of Fort Vancouver were furnished later 
by Captain Wilkes, with whose Pacific Coast Survey, Fremont was to connect. 
Owing to a correction of the coast-line made by Fremont, Wilkes became 
angry and some newspaper letters on the subject, which will be referred to 
more at length farther on, were the result. 

2 The "soldiers" brought by Micheltorena in 1842 were a miserable lot. 
" I saw them land and to me they presented a state of wretchedness and misery 
unequalled. Not one individual among them possessed a jacket or panta- 
loons." — Alfred Robinson, Life in California, p. 207. 



The Spanish Trail 235 

at good wages, with a promise of a double amount if he 
proved satisfactory. Four others also desired to become 
Californians and were honourably discharged. This left him 
with a party of nineteen, for the return trip, which was large 
enough. On the 22nd a preparatory move was made of a 
short distance, and on the 24th the final start took place. 
The caravan headed for "Walker's Pass" at the southern 
end of the Sierra; Fremont states "at the head of the San 
Joaquin River," but Walker's Pass, the one Walker crossed 
by, is near the head of Kern River.' From that pass he 
expected to continue south, with the Sierra on his right, till 
he met the "Spanish Trail" from Pueblo de los Angeles to 
Santa Fe, which he would follow for a distance and then 
proceed to Utah Lake. This was the trail in after years 
called the "Old" Spanish Trail. It was laid out in 1830, by 
William Wolfskill, who settled at Los Angeles. 

By this route he intended to completely "solve the 
problem of any river except the Colorado" flowing from the 
Rocky Mountains, and see "the southern extremity of 
Great Salt Lake." Captain Sutter accompanied him a few 
miles and then the Lieutenant settled down to observation, 
and very little, as usual, escaped his keen eye and sound 
judgment. The California authorities were desirous of 
knowing his business in the country and they sent an officer 
to Sutter's Fort to inquire. He arrived there shortly after 
the expedition had gone.^ But there was no interference 
with the party; indeed the Mexicans seldom cared to con- 
front an American rifle. 

The course which Fremont had laid out for himself 
"would occupy a computed distance of two thousand miles 
before we reached the head of the Arkansas; not a settle- 
ment to be seen upon it ; and the names of places along it, all 
being Spanish or Indian, indicated that it had been little 

■ Farther on it will be seen that Fremont has in mind Tehachapi Pass and 

not the one he later named Walker. 
' Richman's California, p. 306. 



236 Fremont and '49 

trod by American feet." By about the same route Jedediah 
Smith, eighteen years before (1826), had come into this coun- 
try and his trail was laid down on Gallatin's map of 1836, 
which Fremont should have had. A part of the way, as I 
know from experience some thirty years later, is perhaps as 
trying a region as is to be found within our borders, except 
Death Valley and its immediate neighbourhood. 

The first stretch was eighteen miles to the Cosumne 
River through a level country with groves of live oak, camp 
being made, not far, evidently from the present town of 
Amo. Twenty-eight miles the next day over "the same 
delightful country brought them to a beautiful bottom at 
the ford of the Mokelumne, of which the last stream is a 
branch. It was easy going now; the way was plain and 
smooth, and the animals, well fed, felt vigorous. On the 
26th they arrived at the Calaveras River a tributary of the 
San Joaquin, and they were not far from the present city of 
Stockton. The name "Calaveras," recalls Bret Harte's 
poem, The Society upon the Stanislaus, which latter stream, 
made famous by the same pen, they arrived at next day. It 
was "Brown of Calaveras brought a lot of fossil bones," to 
the meeting of the now immortal society. 

"Then Abner Dean of Angel's raised a point of order — when 
A chunk of old red sandstone took him in the abdomen, 

* :): * * !): 

"And I 've told in simple language" continues the poet, "what 
I know about the row, 
That broke up our Society, upon the Stanislow." 

At this time there was no poet of California, at least no 
American poet, and it was years later before the young 
genius Harte arrived and frequented the home which Fre- 
mont established near San Francisco, and where the kindly 
spirit of the ever brilliant Mrs. Fremont, as well as of 
Fremont himself, gave the young poet that "first aid to the 
injured" which means so much to budding talents. 



The Great Valley 237 

Fremont, in passing, notes the vegetation as usual and 
especially the amole or soap plant, the leaves of which being 
composed of a long, strong fibre are woven into various arti- 
cles ; while the root, all over the West where the plant grows, 
has been used for washing clothes in place of soap. In early- 
days soap was often a rare article, not to be wasted, and the 
root of this plant when macerated and stirred in water offers 
a very good substitute. The Mormons in Utah frequently 
had nothing else. Another plant mentioned is the vine with 
a small white flower called yerba buena, after which an island 
in San Francisco Bay was named (now called Goat Island), 
as well as a village on the site of San Francisco. The rich 
orange-coloured California poppy, now well-known, also 
particularly struck his eye, and the blue lupine growing 
luxuriantly in clusters or thickets ten or twelve feet high; 
"a lover of natural beauty can imagine with what pleasure 
we rode among these flowering groves, which filled the air 
with a light and delicate fragrance." 

The valley through which the expedition was making its 
way south, is a remarkable one. It is about 450 miles long 
from north to south and perhaps averages some forty or fifty 
in width. On the east is the Sierra Nevada and on the west 
the Coast Range, thus completely encircling it with moun- 
tains. Two main rivers, the Sacramento from the north, 
and the San Joaquin from the south, carry all the drainage 
water to the Bay of San Francisco, where it finds its way 
into the Pacific through the Golden Gate, named by Fre- 
mont on his next expedition. This valley is extremely 
fertile and is favourable to a large number of different 
plants. There were five Missions arotmd the Bay of San 
Francisco: Dolores, Santa Clara, San Jose, San Francisco de 
Solano, and San Rafael. The others were all to the south, 
along the coast. It may be wondered why the Lieutenant 
did not visit some of the towTis and Missions, as he went 
south as it would have been little out of his way to have 
done so. The reason probably was, that he well knew what 



238 Fremont and '49 

California was in those quarters, and he desired to seciire an 
understanding of the San Joaquin Valley so that he could 
make a proper report. 

Many of the Missions were still flourishing, and they 
were connected by a highway, the Camino Real, but they 
were nearing the end of their existence, and the pastoral 
period of California Alta was almost at the vanishing point. 
The Mission regime, rimning from 1770 for about a quarter 
of a century, was one of the most unique and interesting 
features in the history of the entire territory now the United 
States. Though religious in their conception, the Mission 
establishments prospered far more in a commercial, than in a 
spiritual way. Thousands of hides, immense quantities of 
tallow, grain, wool, and other produce, were annually dis- 
posed of to the great profit of the pious managers. The 
average crop of grain at San Luis Rey was 12,660 bushels. 

In order that the reader shall have a clear understanding 
of the nature of these establishments which are so prominent 
in the history of the Golden State, a quotation from Alfred 
Robinson, an American, who was much in California on busi- 
ness in very early days, and who, in 1829, visited the Mis- 
sion of San Luis Rey, one of the foremost, will be apropos. " 

It was yet early in the afternoon when we rode up to the 
establishment, at the entrance of which many Indians had con- 
gregated to behold us, and as we dismounted, some stood ready 
to take off our spurs, whilst others unsaddled the horses. The 
reverend father was at prayers, and some time elapsed ere he 
came, giving us a most cordial reception. Chocolate and refresh- 
ments were at once ordered for us, and rooms where we might 
arrange our dress, which had become somewhat soiled by the 
dust. 

The Mission was founded in 1798, by its present minister 

'^ Life in California, by an American [Alfred Robinson]. New York, 
Putnam and Wiley, 1 846, p. 23 et seq. A recent description of the Missions is by 
George Wharton James, In and Out of the Old Spanish Missions. Little, Brown 
& Co., 1905. See also the writings of Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, O. F. M. 



San Luis Rey 239 

father Antonio Peyri, who had been for many years a reformer 
and director among the Indians. At this time (1829) its popula- 
tion was about three thousand Indians, who were all employed in 
various occupations. Some were engaged in agriculture, while 
others attended to the management of over sixty thousand head 
of cattle. Many were carpenters, masons, coopers, saddlers, shoe- 
makers, weavers, etc., while the females were employed in spin- 
ning and preparing wool for their looms, which produced a 
sufficiency of blankets for their yearly consumption. . . . The 
building occupies a large square, of at least eighty or ninety yards 
on a side; forming an extensive area, in the centre of which a 
fountain constantly supplies the establishment with pure water. 
The front is protected by a long corridor, supported by thirty- 
two arches, ornamented with latticed railings, which, together 
with the fine appearance of the church on the right, presents an 
attractive view to the traveller. ... In the interior of the square 
might be seen the various trades at work, presenting a scene not 
dissimilar to some of the working departments of our state 
prisons. . . . Mass is offered daily and the greater portion of 
the Indians attend; but it is not unusual to see numbers of them 
driven along by alcaldes, and under the whip's lash forced to the 
very doors of the sanctuary. . . . The condition of these Indians 
is miserable indeed; and it is not to be wondered at that many 
attempt to escape." 

Yet after Peyri finally left, for years they placed candles and 
flowers before his picture and prayed for his return. 

The situation of the Fremont party was in great con- 
trast to that of the month before when they were strug- 
gling, famished and weary, on the high peaks through the 
interminable fields of deep snow\ Fremont remarks: "Our 
road was now one of continued enjoyment ; and it was pleas- 
ant, riding among this assemblage of green pastures with 
varied flowers and scattered groves, and out of the warm 
spring, to look at the rocky and snowy peaks where lately we 
had suffered so much." On reaching the Stanislaus it was 
found too deep to ford, and they went up it five miles looking 
for a crossing, but camped without discovering one, March 



240 Fremont and '49 

28, 1844, in latitude 37° 42' 26", longitude 121° 07' 13", not 
far from the site of Ripon. Returning down the river in the 
hunt for a ford they finally came almost to the San Joaquin 
into which it empties. No ford being possible several of the 
cattle were killed and boats were made of their skins by means 
of which the baggage was transferred; the animals, of course, 
were compelled to swim. If horses are driven into a stream, 
and prevented from coming back, they are obliged to strike 
out for the opposite side. I have helped to pelt them with 
stones at a wide river to force them to start swimming. 
Thirteen head of cattle ran off while this operation was going 
on, and these made their way back towards Sutter's Fort. 
One day was devoted to an attempt to recover them, but 
without success, and they were abandoned. 

Continuing southward they were stopped in about ten 
miles by another large river which, Fremont says, was the 
Merced, but it was the Tuolumne, as the Merced is farther 
south. There was less fertility now, but to compensate there 
were bands of elk, wild horses, and numerous tracks of 
grizzlies. 

The 2nd of April, 1844, was occupied with building a boat 
to get across this new and deep river, and the following day 
the party moved on occasionally touching the San Joaquin, 
"a fine-looking, tranquil stream, with a slight current, and 
apparently deep, " and in twenty- two miles reached still an- 
other tributary, in latitude 37° 22' 05'', longitude I20°58' 03'', 
which Fremont says had no name. This was the Merced, a 
few miles above its mouth. It was ferried with no difficulty. 
Continuing along the east bank of the San Joaquin they 
came to another tributary which was crossed only to reach 
still another worse one and a detour of several miles was 
made. This happened a second time and after eighteen 
miles, they finally camped on the San Joaquin in latitude 
37° 08' 00'' and longitude 120° 45' 22". The country was full 
of game and bands of elk were frequently seen in the edge of 
the timber. The opposite, or west, bank of the San Joaquin 



Indians Again 241 

was prairie-like and "was alive with immense droves of wild 
horses"; in fact, Fremont states it was partly to avoid get- 
ting his animals stampeded with one of these bands that 
he chose, the east, or right bank, to travel on. During graz- 
ing, the animals of an outfit might get mixed, in the night, 
with a wild band, and then there is vast trouble even if some 
are not lost altogether; but the herders could have prevented 
this by vigilance as the wild horses are generally as wild as 
deer. 

April 5th, thirty-seven miles were covered, and camp was 
made on the bank of the San Joaquin, in latitude 36° 49' 12" 
and longitude 120° 28' 34''. From here the line of timber was 
visible marking the occasional outlet of Tule (Tulare) Lake. 
The next day, in fifteen miles, they reached the San Joaquin 
where it comes from the east, barring the way; but a good 
ford was discovered and camp was pitched on the left or south 
bank where wild horses were stirring up clouds of dust. It 
is hardly necessary to say that these wild horses were not 
indigenous ; there were no wild horses on the American con- 
tinent till the European came and some escaped from 
him. 

The beautiful spring weather they had up to this time 
so much enjoyed, now left them. On the 7th of April they 
made a hard march all day in a cold rain, with a dense fog 
that compelled a resort to the compass. They headed 
across a level, open country, camping near some ponds, and 
on the 8th reaching what he calls. River of the Lake, now 
King's River, the principal tributary of Tulare Lake, which 
has no regular outlet, though at very high water it runs 
over to the San Joaquin, by the course indicated above. 
With Buena Vista and Kern Lakes it receives the entire 
drainage of the western slopes of the south part of the Sierra 
Nevada. While hunting a ford some Indians appeared, 
who, when they saw the travellers were not Spanish soldiers, 
readily conducted them to the right place. Several had been 
Mission Indians and knew Spanish. Crossing, more Indians 
16 



242 Fremont and '49 

were found who had come from their village. These Indians 
were probably of the Mariposan stock, called Yokuts, as 
this was their particular range. They said the Spaniards 
called them mansitos (tame) to distinguish them from 
some horse-stealing bands living higher up. Many of 
the latter were "Christian" Indians who had escaped from 
the Missions, or had returned to the mountains when 
those establishments were broken up. No doubt they well 
remembered the Mass, and the lash which so often went 
with it. 

There were Mission Indians also among these "hand- 
some and intelligent" Yokuts with whom Fremont camped 
on the night of April 8th, but they were all mansitos as stated. 
The latitude of the camp, 36° 24^ 50", was on King's River, 
not far from Laton of to-day. The valley of this stream, 
higher up, is extremely picturesque, somewhat resembling 
the Yosemite. (See cut opposite.) Continuing south-easterly 
they came to another large river on the 12th. It emptied into 
a small lake at the head of the valley and was afterwards 
named by Fremont, Kem River, and the lake, Kern Lake, 
after his assistant on his next, or third, expedition. His 
position on it was in the neighbourhood of Bakersfield, or 
perhaps, a little higher up, near Oilcenter. He had now 
arrived at the very south end of the immense longitudinal 
valley which forms the heart of California. 

If he intended to cross the Sierra by the pass he later 
named after Walker, because that pioneer was the first to 
cross it, he should have turned now up Kem River and kept 
on past the site of the present town of Isabella and up the 
South Fork, where he would have found the pass with an 
altitude of 5248 feet, or 4828 feet higher than Bakersfield, 
and more than 5000 feet above the low valley on the eastern 
side. Either he failed to understand the position of this 
pass, or he believed the Tehachapi Pass for which he was 
heading to be the one Walker traversed. Simpson claimed 
that Walker had been over both passes, into California in 




In the Sierra Nevada, California 

King's River 



Tehachapi Pass 243 

1833 by Walker Pass, and out the next year by Tehachapi, 
but there seems to be no good evidence of this.' Walker 
entered by a pass that dropped him down into the Yosemite 
Valley, which was far north of Walker Pass, and he made his 
exit by the latter. Fremont does not now even mention the 
existence of Walker Pass, except as he had previously stated 
that he would go to "a pass at the head of the San Joaquin 
River discovered by Mr. Joseph Walker, and whose name 
it might appropriately bear. " He did not go to the head of 
the San Joaquin River either, so he probably meant at the 
head of the San Joaquin Valley and had in mind the Teha- 
chapi Pass which he is approaching. ^ Crossing Kern River, 
the expedition held to the south-easterly course, about on the 
line of the Southern Pacific Railway, and found the moun- 
tains on their left towering very near. Coming to a stream 
(Cottonwood Creek) which Fremont called Pass Creek, and 
which vanished with remarkable suddenness toward the 
valley, they followed it up and cam.ped the night of April 13th 
in a handsome oak grove with greensward all around. A 
Christian Indian here rode into the camp, well dressed and 
speaking Spanish fluently. He belonged to one of the 
southern Missions and was on leave to visit his relatives. 
He gave much information concerning the desert region to 
the east, and this caused the Lieutenant to abandon an idea 
he had recently developed of now heading across the Great 
Basin for Great Salt Lake. He saw that it would be too 
difficult at this time, and he accepted the Indian's offer to 
guide the party as far as he conveniently could towards the 
Spanish Trail for Santa Fe, on his return the next day. The 
latitude of this camp was 35° I'j' 12" and longitude, 118° 
35' 03", and it was so near the summit of the (Teha- 

' Explorations . . . across the Great Basin of Utah, by Capt. J. H. Simp- 
son, T. E., 1859, p. 21. 

'Later, on p. 270 of his Report he says: "Counting from the time we 
reached the desert, ... at our descent from Walker's Pass in the Sierra 
Nevada," showing rather clearly that he at first thought Tehachapi was the 
pass Walker had come over. 



244 Fremont and '49 

chapi) Pass that Fremont says it can be used for that 
location. 

On April 14th they went up the right branch of the creek, 
Tchichipa, to the summit, through beautiful spring verdure, 
green trees, flowers, humming birds and all the accompani- 
ments of the vernal season, but as they topped the pass they 
beheld a wide scene of the old familiar desolation. They 
were looking into the Mohave Desert, Nothing was green; 
the mountains were bald and rocky. 

We here left [he states] the waters of the bay of San Fran- 
cisco, and, though forced upon them contrary to my intentions, 
I cannot regret the necessity which occasioned the deviation. It 
made me well acquainted with the great range of the Sierra 
Nevada. ... It also made me well acquainted with the basin 
of the San Francisco bay, and with the two pretty rivers and 
their valleys, . . . which are tributary to that bay; and cleared 
up some points in geography on which error had long prevailed. 
It had been constantly represented, as I have already stated, 
that the bay of San Francisco opened far into the interior, by 
some river coming down from the base of the Rocky Mountains, 
and upon which supposed stream the name of Rio Buenaventura 
had been bestowed. Our observations of the Sierra Nevada, in 
the long distance from the head of the Sacramento [he refers to 
the head of Klamath River which he mistook for the head of the 
Sacramento] to the head of the San Joaquin, and of the valley 
below it . . . show that this neither is nor can be the case. No 
river from the interior does, or can, cross the Sierra Nevada . . . 
and as to the Buenaventura, the mouth of which seen on the 
coast gave the idea and the name of the reputed great river, it is, 
in fact, a stream of no consequence. . . . There is no opening 
from the Bay of San Francisco into the interior of the continent. ' 

^ Memoirs, p. 255. The Buenaventura probably had its origin in Esca- 
lante's application of that name to Green River. As for the error about this 
river, it was practically eliminated by Jedediah Smith and Peter Skene 
Ogden, in 1826-28. There was, to be sure, a small possibility remaining, 
near Goose Lake, but a very small one. Maps before Fremont's trip gave 
the Great Basin approximately correct. See pp. 24, and 44 for these maps. 



A Strange Tree 245 

They did not immediately fall into the worst desert, 
however, though before night they were surprised by the 
sudden appearance of its harbingers, the yucca trees. " Asso- 
ciated with the idea of barren sands, their stiff and ungrace- 
ful form makes them to the traveller the most repulsive tree 
in the vegetable kingdom, " he says. I do not have exactly 
this feeling towards the singular tree which struck Fremont 
so unpleasantly. It was the Joshua Tree or Clistoyucca 
Arborescens, "the largest and most imposing of the Yuccece 
of the United States," declares Trelease,' and its range is 
confined to the region lying between Fremont's present 
position south to Detrital Valley, Arizona, and north to the 
Beaverdam Mountains, Utah, in about 113° 50' longitude, a 
V-shaped area. It ceases as one rises to the pass over the 
Beaverdam Range, as abruptly as it begins at Tehachapi 
Pass. Nowhere else is it to be found. An illustration is 
given at page 27 which shows the blossoms. 

The flowers, coming at the ends of the spike-leaved 
branches, are a delicate greenish white and are in remarkable 
contrast to the tree itself and to the general surroimdings. 
One is obliged in places to use the dead tnmks for fuel, but 
they bum like punk and emit a pungent, disagreeable smoke. 
I was much interested in this tree which seems, from its 
rarity, distinguished, and which at a distance assiimed 
strange shapes, sometimes, far off, resembling a horseman 
so closely that it was only the lack of movement that 
imdeceived us. 

The next day several Indians who had followed with the 
guide, took their leave, and the caravan turned directly 
south along the foot of the mountain, at the limit of abundant 
water and grass. The guide pointed across the (Mohave) 
desert and exclaimed: "There are the great plains, there is 
neither water nor grass — nothing; every animal that goes 
out upon them dies." And the Lieutenant adds: "It was 
indeed dismal to look upon, and hard to conceive so great a 

' TJte Yuccecc, by William Trelease, Missouri Botanical Garden, p. 41. 



246 Fremont and '49 

change in so short a distance. " The Atchison, Topeka, and 
Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railways now utiHse the 
Tehachapi Pass for the traverse from the valley of the 
San Joaquin to the desert, but the traveller by train would 
not perceive these differences as vividly as one depending on 
the endurance of a horse, with little to eat or drink. The Mo- 
have Desert ends about seventy-five miles east giving place to 
a country that, if not precisely a desert, is the next thing to it : 
waterless, rocky, interspersed with mountain ranges, and 
with meagre vegetation in the valleys. From the Colorado 
River north to Death Valley and far beyond, this is a deso- 
late region, but the gold which is there has recently worked a 
transformation. Cities, railways, telegraph, modem conven- 
iences abound where in Fremont's time and much later 
not a white settler existed. 

Fremont remarks on the motley appearance of his caval- 
cade made up of all nationalities, including the young 
Chinook, who had successfully weathered his distress in the 
snows of Carson Pass, and still hung on, bound to secure his 
own impressions of the world and of the white men. "Our 
march," says Fremont, "was a sort of procession. Scouts 
ahead, and on the flanks ; a front and rear division ; the pack 
animals, baggage, and homed cattle, in the centre; and the 
whole stretching a quarter of a mile along our dreary path. " 

In this manner they went southerly along the edge of the 
dry plain with the yucca trees adding to the extraordinary 
character of the country. Another plant which he calls 
zygophyllum Californicum, with many varieties of cactus, 
made up, with the yucca, the chief vegetation. In the after- 
noon emerging from the yucca forest at the foot of an outlier 
of the Sierra, they foimd vast patches of California poppy, 
mingled with other even brighter flowers. Flowers seem to 
flourish in many fields and under many conditions. I have 
found them on the tops of high mountains, where nothing 
else grew, in the deepest canyons, on lava desert, on 
sandstone desert, and on the Arctic timdra. In the Arctic 



On the Spanish Trail 247 

summer it is difficult, in some localities, to walk except on 
flowers. They withstand every condition except absolute 
lack of moisture. 

The region Fremont is now in has a minimum of rain but 
rain comes occasionally in most parts of it, at some season 
of the year, and keeps the plants alive which have become 
adapted to the environment. The cactus, of course, is a 
well in itself, and its flowers of exquisite and varied colour are 
some of the most beautiful I know. The fruit is refreshing, 
particularly if one has had no vegetable or fruit for some 
time. 

The guide led them to a small valley in the moimtain 
where there was a spring and plenty of fine bunch grass. 
They had not yet abandoned the fertile fringe of the desert. 
Their latitude, the night of April 15th, was 34° 41' 42" and 
longitude 118° 20' 00", not far from Del Sur, Los Angeles 
County. Men were sent back after a stray mule and it 
was brought up on the i6th. April 17th, they passed a 
pretty lake about twelve hiindred yards in diameter, per- 
haps the one now called Lake Elizabeth, and turning 
to the eastward along the dim trail, the guide soon set 
them on their way and, with the presents they gave him, 
started south to San Fernando where he lived. They 
made thirty-nine miles and reached a point the guide 
had indicated where there was a little creek, but not before 
dark were they able to camp, as they turned up the stream in a 
search for grass which they did not find. A few animals were 
secured and tied up, but the rest had to be left to themselves. 
On the 1 8th of April they succeeded in getting them all 
together again, but it was late in the day when they camped 
among some springs in a grass-covered hollow in latitude 
34° 27' 03" and longitude 1 1 7° 43' 2 1 ". ' They were skirting 
the desert on the south, along the edge of the mountains and 

'In the text of the Report this longitude is given 117° 13' 00", but this is the 
longitude of the 21st. The correct longitude for the l8th, ii7°43'2i", is given 
in his table of latitudes and longitudes. 



248 Frdtmont and 49 

this way they continued, often over very bad ground, and 
on the afternoon of April 20, 1844, after a difficult march of 
eighteen miles a glad shout went up. They had struck the 
Spanish Trail! "A road to travel on and the right course to 
go, were joyful consolations to us, " exclaims the Lieutenant, 
"and our animals enjoyed the beaten track like ourselves." 
This became afterwards the Southern Road to California from 
Salt Lake, by the way Fremont is now going there. They 
had met with it a few miles north of the Cajon Pass 
through which it came from Los Angeles. 

In fifteen miles they came to a river, timbered with cotton- 
wood and willow, and having grass, and here they camped on 
the night of the 20th and all of the 21st for recuperation. 
This was Mohave River, as Fremont named it, the Incon- 
stant River of Gallatin's and of Wilkes's maps, a name 
probably bestowed by Jedediah Smith. Their latitude was 
34° 34' 11"; longitude 117° 13' 00", not far from Halleck on 
the present line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Rail- 
way. On the 22nd the march was resumed down this peculiar 
river, sixty feet wide, and several feet deep, flowing between 
banks of naked sand. There were willows and cotton woods, 
however, along the bottoms. Instead of increasing in volume 
as they descended, this river decreased by evaporation and 
seeping away into the sand, and the next day it entirely 
disappeared, inconstant to the last degree. They now 
camped on the regular sites of the annual Santa F6 caravan, 
which had not yet gone across this year, and there was con- 
sequently some grass to be had. In about sixteen miles the 
river came to the surface again in low places, timbered with 
cottonwoods and willows, where the party camped on its 
banks once more. 

They were visited here by some Mohave (Yuman) In- 
dians, one of whom spoke Spanish and was able to convey 
much information. They had very long bows and each had 
a large gourd in which he carried water. The Mohave tribe 
lived on the Colorado River, between the Needles and Black 



A Massacre 249 

Canyon. They were the Indians who battled with Jedediah 
Smith on his second entrance into the region, in 1827, in- 
stigated by the Spaniards, who did not want Americans to 
come into California. Ten of his men were killed and all 
his property lost. Smith had been unwary on account of 
their former friendliness. He was obliged to continue to 
the California settlements where he encountered opposition 
and ill treatment. 

When Fremont started on again, April 24th, he con- 
tinued down the river, waterless except for water in holes, 
and camped on it eight miles below. He noticed a new 
species of acacia with spiral pods. This is now termed 
popularly mescrew, or screw-bean mesquite {Prosopis pu- 
bescens). The beans are used for fodder, and are eaten by 
Indians. At this camp three of the cattle were killed and 
the meat dried. They were becoming worn and poor and 
this was considered an economy. The Indians made a 
feast, utilising all that was discarded but the bones. In the 
afternoon a Mexican man and boy, the latter a handsome 
lad eleven years old, suddenly came into the camp. They 
were Andreas Fuentes and Pablo Hernandez, who, with the 
wife oi Fuentes, the father and mother of Pablo, and a man 
named Giacome from New Mexico, had started ahead of the 
annual caravan from Los Angeles, and at a spring eighty miles 
farther on, called the Archilette, had halted to wait for it. 
There a band of about a hundred Indians had charged upon 
them, but Fuentes and Pablo, being out with the stock and 
mounted, urged by their party, rode off, driving as many 
horses as possible and escaped in spite of the arrows sent 
after them. Fremont promised to aid them all he could. 

The next day the cavalcade started on its way, Fuentes 
and Pablo accompanying it. They swung abruptly away 
from the river, to the north, soon getting on the main trail 
which had turned off earlier, and pursued it towards the 
Agua de Tomaso, where the two Mexicans had left the 
horses they had escaped with. Arriving there the horses 



250 Fremont and '49 

were found to have been driven away by the pursuing In- 
dians, Carson and Godey, with Fuentes, all well-armed, 
started on the Indian's trail, and the caravan remained at 
Tomaso Spring (Agua del Tio Meso). Fuentes came in at 
night, his horse having given out, Fremont occupied his 
evening by securing an observation for longitude which gave 
the position ii6° 23' 28". The latitude was 35° 13' 08". 
The previous longitudes from Sutter's Fort were obtained 
from the chronometer but from this out they were to be from 
observation. 

On the afternoon of the 25th of April, a war-whoop was 
heard and presently Carson and Godey drove in a band of 
the Fuentes horses. Two bloody scalps, dangling from the 
end of Godey's gun told the story. They had followed the 
trail by moonlight till about midnight when it entered a 
defile so dark they had to halt. There they stopped till 
morning, making no sound and no light. At daylight they 
resumed the piirsuit and by simrise had discovered the 
horses. Tying up their own, they crept on to a slight hill from 
which they saw four lodges very near, and stealing towards 
these they arrived within a hundred feet or so when some 
startled horses warned the enemy. With a shout the Ameri- 
cans charged upon the lodges and were received with a 
flight of arrows, but their rifle shots stretched out two of the 
Indians and the rest fled, except a small boy whom they 
captured. As they lifted the scalps of the slain, one sprang 
to his feet with a hideous howl, two bullets in his body 
not having instantly killed him. His misery was ended as 
speedily as possible. 

The Indians had killed several of the horses and prepared 
them for cooking in earthen pots which were on the flre at 
the moment filled with the meat. Releasing the boy, and 
gathering in the remaining horses, fifteen in number, Carson 
and Godey, unharmed, though Godey had received an arrow 
through his collar, returned to the general camp. They had 
made about a hundred miles in thirty hours "To avenge," 




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Death and Silence 251 

says Fr6mont, "the wrongs of Mexicans whom they did not 
know. " It was no new experience for Carson. 

The same afternoon the caravan continued its way. 
Fremont concluded to avoid the extreme heat of the day by 
travelHng in the night, as was afterwards often done in that 
same region. About midnight they reached a dry stream 
bed down which they turned, north-westerly, and arrived 
before day at the entrance to a canyon where there was 
water. They found the water too salt to drink. All around 
was sand and rocks and skeletons of horses. They were 
going on when, within a few hundred yards to the south, a 
spring of good water was found which was a relief, though the 
absence of grass forbade any prolonged halt at the place. 

Proceeding, therefore, on this 28th of April, through 
barren country with a heavy gale blowing — and there is 
scarcely anything more annoying and uncomfortable than 
one of these gales flinging the sharp sand in one's face and 
sometimes making it well-nigh impossible to continue, — they 
arrived in eight miles at a large creek of salt and bitter water 
called Amargosa by the Spaniards. Following its ravine 
they came at length into a green valley with springs of excel- 
lent water where they encamped amidst mescrew groves with 
good grass for the animals. 

The next day, the 29th, they expected to reach the place, 
seven miles distant, where the Fuentes party had been at- 
tacked. Starting early they "traversed a part of the desert, 
the most sterile and repulsive we had yet seen, " with a course 
generally north, and finally descended into a basin in the midst 
of which was the camping ground called the Archilctte. "The 
dead silence of the place was ominous; and, galloping rapidly 
up, we found only the corpses of the two men Hernandez 
and Giacome: everything else was gone," except a little dog 
that had belonged to Pablo's mother. The boy now filled 
the air with his cries, and they all rejoiced that Carson and 
Godey had been able to teach the savages a striking lesson. 

It was necessary to remain the night there, but early in 



252 Fremont and '49 

the morning they gladly went on. Fremont left a record in 
the cleft of a pole for the information of the caravan, and in 
commemoration he called the place Agua de Hernandez. It 
is now Resting Springs. In. twenty -four miles they reached 
water at a place which was almost on the present boundary 
line between California and Nevada and in latitude 35° 58' 
19", actually what is now called Stump Spring, though Fre- 
mont speaks of the place as a dry stream bed with water holes. 
In another stretch of fifteen miles, on May 1st, towards some 
mountains, evidently the Spring Mountain Range, across 
a plain, with cacti abundant and "in rich fresh bloom, which 
wonderfully ornaments this poor country, " they camped at 
a spring "in the pass which had been the site of an old 
village." There was good grass but little water. He does 
not state what this old village was, and one is at a loss 
whether to ascribe it to the house-building Indians, the 
Puebloans, whose range we are now entering, or to some 
pioneer Spanish settlement long before abandoned. 

I remember this locality very well. I foimd three or four 
miles south of Fremont's position, in 1876, a group of old 
buildings but they were of later origin, and had nothing 
to do with this village he speaks of. The houses I saw had 
been the base of operations for a mine of galena some distance 
up the side of the mountain, then called the old Mormon or 
Potosi Mine, on a "California Road" across Potosi Pass. ^ 
During the trouble between the Mormons and the general 
government in 1857, they worked this mine for lead to be 
made into bullets, but the bullets proved unsatisfactory as 
they cut the rifling out of the guns. The reason was dis- 
covered later; there was a large proportion of silver in the 
lead. The vein was about fifteen feet thick, and, at the time 
of my visit, at least five hundred tons of excellent ore, mined 
by some more recent operators, was lying on the dump. 

' It is possible that the Potosi Mine was worked by Spaniards earlier 
than Fremont's passage, that some huts were built there, and that Fremont's 
route lay this way, instead of farther north as I have drawn it. 



Las Vegas 253 

In twelve miles the Fr6mont party crossed over to the val- 
ley on the east, Las Vegas Valley, and eighteen miles more 
north-easterly brought them to the springs at Las Vegas. 
These two springs, very large, surge up with great force show- 
ing that their source is high. The water is warm but pure 
and palatable. Fremont remarks, "The taste of the water is 
good but rather too warm to be agreeable. " The railway 
from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles now passes here, striking 
for the Mohave River. The California Southern Road went 
over the Spring Mountain Range by the route which Fre- 
mont has just traversed, which was merely a trifle north 
of Potosi Pass, by which I crossed, but the old road I fol- 
lowed returned to it again farther west.^ Many a " Forty- 
niner" journeyed to the Land of Dreams across these 
dry basins, finding perhaps, after all, his fortune in till- 
ing the soil rather than in washing out gold. The basins 
lying between the mountain ranges are often great level 
stretches, as level as a table, of barren earth or clay which 
become almost bottomless mud in a wet season, and in a dry, 
turn themselves into phantorfi lakes, a shimmering blue 
under the burning sun, the foam-crested wavelets breaking 
and ever breaking, just ahead of the thirsty traveller — ever 
receding at his approach. The Cup of Tantalus was never 
half so tantalising as one of these "dry lakes" with its 
enticing mirage so perfect in deception, and this entire region 
was a most difficult one to traverse in the days of Fremont 
and in the days of ' 49. 

' " Still farther west from the lead mines [winter of 1857-58] there were 
two roads for about thirty miles. One of them was not usually travelled 
but came into the main road." — Jacob Hamblin, by J. A. Little, p. 55. 

. .'?»' 






■y=^if<rj!:r^^r<?r 



CHAPTER XII 

LAS VEGAS TO BENT's FORT AND HOME 

A Delightful Oasis — Eastward through the Dry Country — Insolent Indians — 
The Virgin River — Tabeau Killed — Mountain Meadows — Joseph Walker 
Comes — On the Trail of Escalante — Utah Lake — Over the Wasatch — 
Fort Uinta and its Destruction — Brown's Hole — The Parks of Colorado 
— Bent's Fort and the Arkansas — To St. Louis and Washington. 

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, was always a central point in the 
vast waste of this region, and it lay just at the margin 
of the Great Basin in this direction. It was a van- 
tage ground on the Spanish Trail, and later, on the California 
Road, because of the abundant fine water, good grass, and 
quantities of mesquite fuel from a large grove not far from the 
springs. There were also cottonwoods and brush aroimd 
the springs, where in later years two houses were established. 
The place was then on the way to the mines of El Dorado 
Canyon and other mines of the locality. The Mormons 
early began a settlement here but they soon abandoned it, as 
they abandoned all their settlements in California and west 
of the Utah line. 

The grass grew in huge, tall, straw-like bunches, and when 
it was harvested for use at the mines it was cut with a large 
hoe. The mesquite roots were dug out, and broken up with 
a sledge hammer! 

The comfort of Las Vegas was thoroughly appreciated by 

those who finally got there across the long dry stretches in 

every direction around it, and in one of my diaries (1876) I 

feelingly remark, "When one leaves this delightful oasis, he 

quickly discovers the true nature of the surroundings — a bar- 

254 




4) ^ 

> i! 



Desolation 255 

ren desert." To show the difference in watering places, I ven- 
ture to quote another entry at "Good Spring" to which I 
had gone. This Good Spring I state, " is a desolate hole. No 
wood. No feed. No anything. The water is the only re- 
deeming feature and one would hesitate and go dry a while 
before drinking it in a better country. Here one is thankful 
for any kind of water." The water there, I remember, was 
in a stagnant pool covered with a green, stringy growth and 
scum. 

Fremont continued on May 4, 1844, north-easterly on the 
regular Spanish Trail, afterwards, as noted, the CaUfornia 
Road of the days of '49. 

In about five hours [he writes] we crossed a gap in the sur- 
rounding ridge, and the appearance of the skeletons of horses 
very soon warned us that we were engaged in another dry jor- 
nada, which proved the longest we had made in all our journey 
— between fifty and sixty miles without a drop of water. Trav- 
ellers through countries afl:ording water and timber can have no 
conception of our intolerable thirst while journeying over the 
hot yellow sands of this elevated country, where the heated air 
seems to be entirely deprived of moisture. 

The cut opposite shows Las Vegas from a sketch I made 
in 1876. The road Fremont went east over passes through 
the gap on the left. 

After sixteen hours of uninterrupted marching they 
reached a stream about midnight. Fremont says he had been 
told the Sevier River was a tributary of the Colorado and he 
thought this was one of its branches, but it proved to be the 
Rio de los Angeles, now the Muddy, a branch of the Virgin. 
At some remote time Sevier, or Severe, seems to have been 
the name applied to the Virgin,' probably by Spaniards who 

' I heard long ago that in some manner the original Spanish names of the 
Sevier and the Virgin got exchanged; that the present Virgin should be the 
Severe and vice versa. See ante page 22, where Captain Young expected to 
find the Severe rising from the sands. Possibly this idea was founded on the 
name Severe having been also attached to what we now call the Virgin River. 



256 Fremont and '49 

traversed the trail in the days of Wolf skill. Smith named it 
Adams River and at some time it was called Pyramid 
River. ^ Just how it got its name of Virgin is uncer- 
tain. It has been claimed that it was after the Virgin Mary, 
which is likely, in a Spanish country as this was, but it does 
not seem to be established by evidence, though Fremont 
states that it was "the Rio Virgen (river of the Virgin)." 

It is also suggested that the river was re-named by 
Smith after one of his men, Thomas Virgin, who was wounded 
at the battle with the Mohaves and killed by the Umpquas. 
But as he was not killed on the Virgin River it would seem 
strange to name that stream after him. The idea that it was 
mistaken for the present Sevier, which was the original Rio 
Virgen, seems plausible, and its original Spanish name, Rio 
Severe, transferred to the other river, to be later spelled 
Sevier by the Americans who perhaps had in mind General 
John Sevier, very prominent in the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century, in American affairs. The Virgin is certainly 
a river which for almost its entire course from its sources 
on the ''Rim of the Basin," to the debouchment at the Col- 
orado, fully deserves the name of Severe. The Spaniards, 
however, named things not so much from their qualities, as 
from the day on which they saw them. 

Fremont remained at the branch stream, now called 
Muddy, a whole day, to allow of recuperation after the exces- 
sively long, hard journey they had just made. The Indians 
of the vicinity, the Moapariats (Pai Ute) were later noted for 
being the worst on the whole route to California, and in the 
days of '49 they harassed the emigrants unmercifully. 
They were always insulting and ready at any time to pick 
a quarrel, and they lost no opportunity to steal all they 

* It has always been accepted that Smith came down the Virgin from the 
Santa Clara region, and named it Adams River; but there are some points 
which indicate that he struck west from Sevier Lake and came to the head 
of the Muddy which he named Adams and followed down to the Colorado, 
instead of the Virgin. He speaks of the Adams turning south-east at one 
place. The Muddy does this but the Virgin does not. 



An Ugly Chief 257 

could get their hands on. When the Mormons were sending 
settlers to California, they stationed a permanent guard 
here to afford protection, not only to their own people but to 
other passing emigrants as well. 

Once I was subjected to a specimen of the common 
insolence for which the Moapariats were formerly noted, 
though I believe they were, in this instance, instigated to it 
by a white man who had a grudge against a man travelling 
in my company, as people often travelled in those days when 
crossing these vast dreary wastes. The chief, called Rufus, 
came to me at night, after we had given him and his people 
all the food we could spare, and otherwise had treated them 
cordially, with an imperious and insulting demand for 
powder and ball, a demand I could not comply with even 
had I wished to, as we had only Winchester cartridges. 
When I told him this he declared me a liar and said he would 
come with his men, with their war-paint on, in the morning, 
and help himself. At this juncture I threw him out of camp, 
that is away from the fire. He fell fiat on his face. Picking 
himself up he rushed off in a fury and for hours signal fires 
gleamed from hill to hill. All the other Indians left our 
camp at once. 

At the first break of day we were mounted and on the 
move to get out of the valley where they would not have the 
advantage of the hilltops about us. What they had planned 
to do, I never found out, but they did not execute it, the 
few that appeared at camp, as we started, contenting them- 
selves with looking ugly. One I discovered had an old 
sword concealed behind his arm. We all breathed more 
comfortably when, at last, we had mounted to the dry desert 
beyond the canyon, where we were in the open, for while we 
had only Winchester cartridges, we were almost out of them. 
I had informed the chief in emphatic language, that when he 
came back with his men he would receive a warm reception, 
but this was pure bluff, for I had only six cartridges left for 
my rifle! We had not expected any trouble here. There 



258 Fremont and '49 

was an Indian Agent and his wife living at the Agency at 
Westpoint above, and several miles below were quartered a 
number of the Agency employees. Yet one reason for the 
ill- temper of the tribe, I was later told, was certain alleged 
rascality of this Agent, which the Indians had discovered. 

Fremont, being a good judge of Indians, did not like 
their actions, and he ordered all the horses to be driven in 
and kept close to camp. "Several times during the day," 
he writes, "the camp was insulted by the Indians, but peace 
being our object I kept simply on the defensive. . . . 
They were the same people who had murdered the Mexicans: 
and towards us their disposition was evidently hostile, nor 
were we well disposed towards them." The explorers were 
obliged to keep their arms in hand all day. A chief, contrary 
to orders, with two or three others, all armed, forced his 
way into the camp, and when shown the white men's 
weapons he bored his ears with his fingers, a favourite act 
with them, and said he could not hear;"cotch nunkai"is 
the expression. 

He went on to declare contemptuously that Fremont's 
force was very small, only twenty-two counting a mule ! that 
was being shod, and they, the Indians, were a great many, 
and he twanged his bow maliciously. Carson was infuriated 
at this attitude and Fremont had difficulty in restraining him 
and the others. Several horses which had been unavoidably 
left behind in the darkness of the night before were sent for, 
but the men foimd that the Indians had killed them and cut 
them up for food, the parts being spread over bushes. They 
used horses only for food at this period. A worn out animal 
was given to one group late in the day, and the recipients 
refused to share with the others which caused loud com- 
plaints. These Indians carried long sticks hooked at one end 
which they used, says Fremont, in hauling out lizards and 
other small animals from their holes. This camp was very 
near the place called Westpoint where the Indian Agency 
was established in after years; the same I have referred to. 



A Difficult Way 259 

The Indians gave no special trouble after the time I was 
there. ' 

Leaving this uncomfortable situation on May 6th, the 
party took their way "through the same desolate and re- 
volting country, where lizards were the only animal, and the 
tracks of the lizard-eaters the principal sign of human 
beings, " across to the Virgin River, and after twenty miles, 
through hills and heavy sands, Fremont says, "we reached 
the most dreary river I have ever seen — a deep rapid stream, 
almost a torrent, passing swiftly by, and roaring against 
obstructions." The time being May, the river was high. 
They crossed it and camped on the left, or east, bank. 
There are plenty of willows and mescrew along this part of 
the Virgin, so they had fuel. They found a shortage of grass 
but I did not have that to contend with when I was there. 

For several days they worked their way up the river, 
constantly guarding the horses. If one got behind it was 
taken off in a moment by the Indians who followed them 
closely. This road along the river when I traversed it was 
exceedingly unpleasant. It sometimes arrived at a crossing 
place and one could not tell where it ought to come out on 
the other side. The exit might be a diagonal mile away, and 
one had to choose his path as best he could across the wide 
sand-bars and channels, perhaps to emerge in a dense, sloppy 
undergrowth of willows or rushes. There were, too, quick- 
sands, and one often had to keep going somewhere, as fast as 
possible, to prevent sinking. At other times the road lay 
a considerable distance through the water and willows at the 
foot of a bluff. Probably it was much the same when Fre- 
mont ascended it. I traversed the region another time by 
"Miller's Cut-Off" which no one previously had been over 

' A few days before my arrival at Las Vegas, the leader of a freighting 
caravan bound for the mines, while half-seas over — not a bad man by the way 
— had quarrelled with a Vegas Indian. He knocked the Indian down and seiz- 
ing an axe split the man's head open as if it were a block of wood. Wc thought 
there would be trouble but he arranged it somehow — on a cash basis, probably. 



26o Fremont and '49 

for many years, and I found an absolute lack of water, a 
solitary "tank" or "pocket" being the only watering place, 
in the whole distance, and that depended for its supply on the 
rains. Near it were the graves of three persons who failed 
to find it in time. 

To illustrate the character of this coimtry on either side, 
away from the immediate river bottom, I may quote an 
experience of my own. On the Muddy we had been told of a 
long unused, shorter way back to Utah than by the quick- 
sands of the river, and I concluded to try to find it. The 
tracks were old, and in the moonlight by which we were 
travelling we mistook a track down a "wash" or half -cany on 
with sandy bottom, to the right, for the one we were seeking. 
After a time we saw that it would take us to the river. We 
therefore left the wash to our right, and struck north-east 
directly across country, finally camping under a large Joshua 
tree. We had seen no water or grass since leaving the Muddy 
and there was none at our camp. We had remaining a small 
nugget of bread, with a little sugar, and about a quart of 
water for supper for the three of us. 

This was the last day of January, 1876. In the morning 
we "started early expecting to reach the Beaverdam by ten 
o'clock. Had nothing for breakfast and no water. Climbed 
down and up and over sand-hills and across broad washes, 
and at two o'clock seemed as far from anywhere as ever. 
Came to a sandy gulch and concluded to follow it to the 
Virgin as both the horses and ourselves were getting pretty 
thirsty under the hot sun. About four o'clock came to the 
river. "^ We had crossed on the north about half-way 
between the Virgin River and Miller's Cut-Off, an old 
road, which was the one we had looked for, and which I 
travelled later in the opposite direction. In summer this 
route away from water would have been unbearable; but in 
summer I would not have chosen that way. 

On the evening of the 8th of May, Fremont arrived oppo- 

' Extract from my diary. 



The Beaverdam 261 

site the mouth of the Beaverdam Creek, where he camped, 
twenty-eight miles above his first camp on the river. There 
are high ranges of mountains all round, and not far above this 
the Virgin comes through a deep, rough canyon; impassable. 
The road, therefore, leaves the river on the right bank at the 
Beaverdam and strikes north-east for a pass in the mountains 
north of the canyon, then called the Santa Clara Mountains.'' 
Owing to this fact, they temporarily lost the trail and men 
were sent out to look for it. The next day they moved a 
mile higher up for better grass, and Tabeau was ordered, 
with a strong guard, to take the horses to a neighbouring 
hollow to pasture them. Several of the best horses were 
picketed at camp, in order to be ready for emergency. 
Tabeau, without Fremont's knowledge, went back on their 
trail to the former camp looking for a lame mule. At sunset 
he had not returned and Carson reported the matter to the 
Lieutenant. While they were speaking "a smoke rose 
suddenly," writes Fremont, "from the cottonwood grove 
below, which plainly told us what had befallen him: it was 
raised to inform the surrounding Indians that a blow had 
been struck, and to tell them to be on their guard." 

Carson and a strong party were sent down the river at 
once. They came to the mule a long distance off, shot in the 
side with an arrow and left to die, so that the Indians could 
secure it for food, but there was no trace of Tabeau, and 
darkness compelled a return. As soon as the light was 
sufficient next morning, May 1 0th, Fremont himself, with 
Fitzpatrick and several others, started on the search. Arriv- 
ing at a spot where Carson in the dim light the night before 
thought he saw a little puddle of blood, they foimd blood on 
the bushes and signs of a struggle. Tabeau apparently had 

' The mountains on the south side of the canyon were called Beaverdam 
Mountains. The highest is Mount Bangs which the late Professor A. H. 
Thompson and I were the first white men on record to climb. We climbed it 
in 1872, in the course of our topographical work. The Geological Survey 
gives its altitude as 7500 feet. Professor Thompson named the peak. The 
whole range north and south of the canyon is now called Beaverdam. 



262 Fremont and '49 

been killed there, stripped, and then dragged to the river 
and thrown in. Not a trace of any of his belongings could 
be discovered. They wished to punish the murderers but 
the condition of the stock was such as to prohibit serious 
exertion, and they were obliged to continue sadly on their 
way. They saw no more of the Indians except one at a great 
distance. It is possible the Indians had hung on to kill some- 
one as blood atonement for the Indians Carson and Godey 
had killed farther back, though they did not need any other 
incentive than their own wills. 

From the time of Walker's crossing of the Great Basin, 
there had been much reckless killing of Indians west of the 
Rocky Mountains without any provocation, except the 
general mildness of the race. I have not the space to recite 
many of these affairs of great wantonness. Pattie, in his 
Narrative'^ describes some of them, and there are enough on 
record to more than fill a volume. The whites took advan- 
tage of superior arms. The Apaches were started on their 
long career of bloodshed against Americans by the violence 
and treachery of the first they had intercourse with, and 
doubtless the Moapariats, and other bands bordering the 
Great Basin, resented the original cruelty of the white men. 
Gregg ^ tells of a case where the warriors were invited to enter 
the white man's camp to receive a present of flour which was 
placed within range of a cannon concealed in bushes. While 
the Apaches were dividing this the piece was fired and a 
number were killed. The remainder were then attacked and 
about twenty were slain including the chief. Those who 
escaped became their own avengers and soon massacred a 
party of fifteen Americans who were trapping not far distant. 

In another instance related to me by a distinguished 

^ The Personal Narrative of James 0. Pattie, of Kentucky, etc., edited by- 
Timothy Flint, Cincinnati, 1833. Reprinted in Thwaites's Series of Early 
Western Travels. Mr. Timothy Flint did his editing too well, I suspect, and 
omitted much that he thought uninteresting. 

* Commerce of the Prairies, by Josiah Gregg, New York, 1844. 



• A Transformation 263 

scientific man, who was in the South-west at a very early date, 
some of our officers by flying a flag of truce lured several 
Apache chiefs to their camp, and then killed them. But it is 
needless to continue. I do not wish to be understood as 
claiming that the Indians were "goody-goody" or were 
better, or more peaceable, than white men. I am only stating, 
in justice to the Indian, that the white man too frequently 
was the aggressor. ' The records of our newspapers clearly 
prove that the white man can be, even with his own kind, 
quite as diabolical as any Indian ever thought of being, and 
within any given tribe the record for law and order would 
surpass our own. In at least one thing, fidelity to his prom- 
ise, the Indian seems to have been our superior. 

Crossing to the north bank of the river where they had 
previously located the Spanish Trail, they followed it towards 
the pass in the Santa Clara (Beaverdam) Mountains. The 
transformation at this point was almost as sudden as at the 
Tehachapi Pass. The Yucca trees disappeared, cedars and 
pines took their place, and there was fine bunch -grass; the 
fearful CUstoyucca country was behind them. As they went 
over the pass they saw snowy mountains beyond (Pine Valley 
Mountain, 10,250 feet), and further evidences of a better land. 
They camped that night on the Santa Clara branch of the 
Virgin in what is now the very south-western comer of Utah. 
The Indians called it the Tonaquint. Here, too, is the begin- 
ning in this direction of the Land of the Shinumos, or house- 
building Indians, whose ruins are scattered as far as Green 
River and beyond.^ 

» The Rev. Dr. Hudson Stuck, of Alaska, says the greatest difficulties of 
the missionaries in Alaska, and especially among the Indians of the Yukon 
Valley, were not the cold weather, the loneliness, the ignorance of the people, 
but the unprincipled white settlers who do all sorts of mean things to the 
Indians, from selling them bad whiskey to stealing from them outright. " It 
is pitiful to be compelled to teach savage people not to despise the whites." 
New York Times item, Oct. 20, 191 3. 

' Ruins of ancient Amerindian houses are found in large numbers over the 
region between the 105th ana 114th meridians, .south of parallel 41, chiefly 



264 Fremont and '49 

In the morning they had some rain, a novelty, for in the 
twenty-seven days they were in the desert they had not had 
a drop. They proceeded up the Santa Clara over a rough 
but cheery road. It was on this little stream that the 
Mormons, about ten years after Fremont's passing, began a 
little settlement (December, 1854), ^^e first in extreme 
Southern Utah. Jacob Hamblin and several others then 
built a log cabin and a dam to take out the water of the 
creek for irrigation purposes. The place was called Santa 
Clara and it is still flourishing. In 1857 a company came 
this way from Salt Lake City, mostly men who had been in 
business there and were leaving for California because of the 
prospective trouble between the Mormons and the Govern- 
ment. Orders were sent by the Mormon authorities to 
Jacob, who supervised Indian matters in this quarter, to see 
that they were not molested by the Indians. 

When I reached the California Road [says Jacob], the company 
had passed and was some distance ahead of me. While travelling 
to overtake it, I found a man who had been travelling alone, 
also in pursuit of the company, with a view of getting through 
with it to California. When I found him, he was already in the 
hands of the Indians, and stripped of his clothing. They were 
making calculations to have a good time with him, as they 
expressed it, that is, they intended to take him to their camp and 
torture him. I told the Indians to bring back his clothing which 
they did, except his shoes, and I took him along with me to the 
company. ^ 

Jacob got them all safely through to Las Vegas by the 
quiet diplomacy for which he was famous, but the Indians 

along the Colorado River and for one hundred miles on each side. The Pai 
Utes called these people Sheenumo. Ruins have been found, I believe, farther 
west than the Santa Clara, but I have no certain data on this. 

^ Jacob Hamblin, A Narrative of his Personal Experience, by James A. 
Little, Salt Lake City, 1881. Jacob was one of the most remarkable men I 
ever knew. His speech was low and quiet, his actions generally slow, but he 
was possessed of an invincible determination and a fine sense of justice. 




^^ 



^"^t^ 



A Pai Ute Home 

Shows the use of tlie grinding stone to pulverise grass seed 
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, Powell Survey, 1872 



Mountain Meadows 265 

there "expected that the outfit would have been massacred 
at the Muddy. " This shows how the Moapariats, or Muddy- 
Indians, always tried to live up to their bad reputation. 
The Mormons afterwards had two or three substantial settle- 
ments on the Lower Muddy, the tillable land being fifteen 
miles long by two miles wide, but they were finally aban- 
doned owing to the hostility of a Nevada sheriff concern- 
ing back taxes. 

The Santa Clara forked a little above Fremont's camp 
of the nth of May, and he took the right hand branch 
which led him into a grassy valley, "an extensive mountain 
meadow" called then Las Vegas de Santa Clara, afterwards 
Mountain Meadows. It was the spot where the fiendish 
massacre of an entire caravan from Missouri by certain 
Mormon fanatics and Indians took place in the autumn of 
1857. The Missouri party had met Jacob near Fillmore, 
and he had advised them, in response to their query, to 
recuperate, before attempting the desert, at Mountain 
Meadows near his own home. Unfortunately for the emi- 
grants, Jacob went on to Salt Lake. Had he been at home, 
he told me, he would have stopped the terrible proceedings 
immediately; and he could have done it, for no one cared to 
oppose "Old Jacob. " John D. Lee was the chief of the mis- 
creants. He did not suffer the penalty of his crime until 
many years after, when he was executed by rifle-shot, sitting 
on his coffin. This was his choice of death penalty. Two 
others, quite as guilty, escaped punishment entirely. The 
Government went at the matter in a half-hearted way, 
although Brigham Young, Jacob says, was ready to give all 
possible assistance to secure punishment for the guilty. 

The Mountain Meadows is a dismal place to-day; at 
least it seemed so to me. The shadow of the great crime, a 
crime so foul Indians could do no worse, stains it indelibly. 
The men of the caravan, under the pretence of protection, 
were induced by Lee and his aids to give up their fine guns; 
then men, women, and children were murdered. Fremont's 



266 Fremont and '49 

camp here was in latitude 37° 28' 28", and at an elevation 
above sea-level according to his observations of 5280 feet. 
The Wheeler Survey made it 5741 , but this may have been at a 
different part of the valley which is by no means level. Fre- 
mont, in his Report, makes the following remark : ' ' Counting 
from the time we reached the desert and began to skirt, at our 
descent from Walker's Pass in the Sierra Nevada, we had trav- 
elled 550 miles, occupying twenty-seven days in that inhospit- 
able region. " ^ This reference to Walker's Pass is proof that 
he considered the Tehachapi Pass the one by which Walker 
crossed, and therefore thought he had crossed by Walker's 
Pass. He had scarcely left the Mountain Meadows when he 
was overtaken by Joseph Walker himself, who then became 
his guide. He had gone to California with the Chiles party 
and was returning. He had discovered that Fremont was 
ahead of him, on the Spanish Trail, and he had, with eight 
men, separated from the slow moving caravan with which 
he was travelling, and come through swiftly without loss, 
killing two of the marauding Indians on the way. 

They now descended into a broad valley, the waters of 
which were tributary to the Great Basin. "Sevier Lake," 
Fremont says, " upon the waters of which we now were, 
belonged to the system of lakes in the eastern part of the 
Basin — of which the Great Salt Lake, and its southern limb, 
the Utah Lake, were the principal." The reader will note 
that he calls Utah Lake the southern limb of Salt Lake. On 
May 16, 1844, they arrived at a small salt lake, about seven 
miles long and one broad, at the northern extremity of which 
they camped nearly opposite a gap in the Wasatch Range (the 
High Plateaus) through which, he states, the Spanish Trail 
passed on its way to Santa Fe. He is looking eastward now 
at the mountains where a few years later he is to have some 
of the hardest days of his life, the pass, by which he emerged 
from the overwhelming winter campaign of 1853-54, ^^^ 
found relief at Parowan, being still called Fremont's Pass. 

^Report, page 270. 



The Rim of the Basin 267 

They were now proceeding north along the eastern face 
of the Wasatch uphft, the southern portion of which Dutton 
named " the High Plateaus," from their flat-topped character, 
great blocks of strata having been pushed up bodily, although 
they are, of course, mountains of great extent.' They are 
divided into a number of plateaus, the western line seen from 
Fremont's camp being named, from north to south, Pavant 
and Tushar Mountains, and Markagunt Plateau, the latter 
dropping to the maze of magnificent peaks and cliffs of bare 
red and yellow rock called the Colob Plateau, where the 
North Fork of the Virgin River, or Mukoontoweap, finds 
its source. The Markagunt Plateau, and the Paunsagunt 
Plateau to the east, reach heights respectively of 11,000 and 
9000 feet, and end suddenly in superb "breaks" forming the 
Rim of the Basin in this quarter. The drainage of the 
breaks, or huge precipices, is to the Colorado, while that of 
the slopes back from the brink is to the Great Basin. The 
Markagunt and Paunsagunt precipices are the Pink Cliffs 
which easily may be classed in form and colour among the 
most beautiful rock structures of the world. From the cliffs 
of the High Plateaus, the descent to the Grand Canyon is by 
huge steps, line upon line, long, like mountain ranges. Table 
Mountain or Cliff, the Aquarius Plateau, the Awapa and the 
Wasatch plateaus on the east, swing up to the regular 
Wasatch Mountains to limit the Basin in that direction. 
Along the south numerous broken ranges form the Rim, which 
is irregular and uncertain ; on the west the Rim is the Sierra 
Nevada, and on the north it is again devious and uncertain, 
in places depending on the amount of annual precipitation. 
Fremont has now almost made the complete circuit of this 
Basin and will finish it in a few days more. 

Walker, his guide at present, and who, he says, "has 
more knowledge of these parts than any man I know of, " 
declared the region to the west of Sevier Lake was not known 
to him, nor could he find out about it from the Indians- 

' The High Plateaus of Utah, by C. E. Dutton, Washington, iS8o. 



268 Fremont and '49 

This was the region through the upper part of which 
Jedediah Smith had gone in 1827, and Walker, himself, 
somewhat farther north, in 1833. Smith was killed by- 
Co manches in 1 83 1, leaving Walker the only living reposi- 
tory of this knowledge. 

On May 20th they met the noted Ute chief, called Walker, 
going leisurely towards the Spanish Trail, with his powerful 
band well armed, to levy his annual tax upon the caravan 
that was approaching. Joseph Walker knew him, and made 
him acquainted with Fremont of whom he had heard. 
They exchanged presents according to Amerindian custom 
and all was well. W. L. Manly came upon Chief Walker and 
his tribe in Uinta Valley, on Green River, in 1849, and 
the chief was very kind to him and his forlorn compan- 
ions who had all come thus far perilously in a boat down 
Green River, and he persuaded them to desist from their 
attempt to descend by water. ' May 23, 1844, Fremont's 
party arrived at the Sevier River where they made a raft of 
bulrushes for crossing, as the river is deep and the banks 
precipitous. With ropes they pulled the raft back and 
forth till everything was over. The Sevier rises far south 
on the Rim, between Markagunt and Paunsagunt plateaus, 
flows north, and then swings sharply around, south-west to 
Sevier Lake. The encampment was at the most northern 
part of the bend, latitude 39° 22' 19", as given in the report, an 
error for 39° 32' 19". He says the river was probably named 
after some American trapper or hunter. "" It was the first 
American name they had met with since leaving the Columbia. 

Here an accident of a kind which was very common in 
the '49 days, and after, killed one of the men named Frangois 
Badeau ; he pulled a gun towards him by the muzzle ; the ball 
went through his head. I have heard experienced men say 
they believed more lives were lost by this sort of carelessness 
than by Indians. 

' Death Valley in '4Q, by William L. Manly, p. 91. 

^ See ante, this chapter, for remarks on the name of Sevier River. 




A Pioneer Cabin 




Uiu- uf the Faithful 



A Mistake 269 

A handsome valley was entered the next day, May 24th, 
evidently Tintie Valley, and they proeeeded over to a small 
tributary of Utah Lake where they eamped, moving on the 
following day to a eamp on Spanish Fork. Three Utes who 
had joined them beeame troublesome, and the camp was 
moved on May 26th, to a bottom farther north "down 
the lake." There were two villages of Utes near-by, one 
near the mouth of Spanish Fork and one farther down the 
lake. From the latter some salmon trout were purchased. 

The greatest breadth of Utah Lake, the Lieutenant states, 
"is about fifteen miles, stretching far to the north, narrowing 
as it goes, and connecting with the Great Salt Lake. This 
is the report, and which I believe to be correct ; but it is fresh 
water, while the other is not only salt, but a saturated solu- 
tion of salt; and here is a problem which requires to be 
solved."' This is the passage in the report referred to by 
Brigham Young. Fremont wrote a letter which was pub- 
lished in New York in 1877,^ in which he quotes an interview 
between Eli Perkins and Brigham, wherein the latter made 
the statement that Fremont thought Salt Lake and Utah 
Lake one, and Fremont to contradict it printed some quota- 
tions from his Report, but he does not give this nor the others 
noted above. He certainly stated: (i) that Utah Lake and 
Salt Lake were connected; (2) that Utah Lake was fresh 
water while the other was salt ; (3) that this is a problem 
which requires to be solved. He also spoke of Utah Lake as 
the southern limb of Great Salt Lake,^ and that he "had 
seen that remarkable sheet of water both at its northern and 
southern extremity." It looks, therefore, as if he actually 
did make the mistake which Brigham Young charged. 

Had he ridden a few miles north from his camp near 
Spanish Fork, he would have found the river, now called 
the Jordan, flowing out of Utah Lake, and would also have 
discovered that a wide belt of solid land intervenes between 

' /?e^or/, p. 273; Memoirs, p. 388. 

• Memoirs, p. 4 1 5. s Report, p. 274. 



270 Fremont and '49 

the two lakes, a belt thirty or more miles across. Walker 
must have known that Utah Lake was not connected with 
the Great Lake, yet he does not seem to have informed the 
Lieutenant on that point. But he did describe the Great 
Basin, and Fremont now concludes definitely, from this and 
his own observations, that the Columbia is the only river 
which traverses the whole breadth of the country to the 
Pacific, and the Buenaventura myth is dead and gone 
forever. "The existence of the Basin is therefore an estab- 
lished fact in my mind ; its extent and contents are yet to be 
ascertained."^ 

He had now seen more of this Basin than any other 
white man with the exception, perhaps, of Walker; but 
Walker had no knowledge by experience with that portion 
lying north of Pyramid Lake along the flank of the Sierra. 
Fremont's estimates and deductions concerning the immense 
interior country were remarkably accurate even to its 
approximate area. "It is called a desert," he says, "and 
from what I saw of it, sterility may be its prominent charac- 
teristic ; but where there is so much water there must be some 
oasis, . . . where there is so much snow there must be 
streams ; and where there is no outlet there must be lakes to 
hold the accumulated waters, or sands to swallow them up. " 

The expedition left Utah Lake, May 27, 1844, and for 
two days went up Spanish Fork into the Wasatch Mountains, 
for Fremont was not content to go the few miles north to his 
former outward camp near the present town of Ogden, and 
so return easily by the travelled Oregon Trail ; he wanted to 
know what the Wasatch and the country east of this range 
were like, and he, therefore, strikes that way. He was an 
untiring explorer; the love of penetrating what is uncertain 
was fixed by nature in his heart, but in addition to this 
indomitable spirit was the one which believed that all this 
country was very soon to fall to the United States, and the 
desire to be prepared to exhibit to his countrymen, which 

' Report, p. 276. 



The Uinta Country 271 

he did most lucidly, its extent and character from the scien- 
tific point of view. 

Their camp, on the 27th, was in latitude 40° 04' 27" on a 
right hand or south branch, and on the 28th in latitude 39° 
55' 11" at its headwaters. A few miles beyond this they 
came to the divide of the Great Basin and the Colorado 
River streams and, "by an open and easy pass," they went 
over to the waters of what was then called White River, 
because of the colour of its water, now Price River. Going 
up a small branch of this, continually under the guidance of 
Walker, the trail led to the headwaters of the Uinta River, 
through some narrow ravines. The latitude of the head of 
the Uinta was 40° 00' 07", camp of May 29th. 

Continuing north down this small branch, they reached 
Strawberry Creek, as the main branch here is now called, and 
crossing it, went up another small branch named Red River 
also from the colour of its water. This was all in a very 
rugged country. At night they camped on the Duchesne 
Fork of the Uinta, at the place where they reached it, and 
next day they went down it about sixteen miles to camp 
on it again in latitude 40° 18' 52" and longitude 112° 18' 
30". The longitude is far from correct and seems to be a 
printer's error for 110° 28' 30", which is about where they 
were. 

On the first day of June the expedition, from the camp on 
the Duchesne, crossed a stretch of broken country in a dis- 
tance of about sixteen miles, as the trail went, to the Lake 
Fork of the Uinta, which was a stream of such great velocity 
that, at this time of high water, "there is an uninterrupted 
noise from the large rocks which are rolled along the bed. " 
Rock rolling is not an uncommon occurrence in the river 
beds of the Rocky Mountain Region which have great 
declivity. In Cataract Canyon the Colorado performs this 
feat on a grand scale and huge boulders are tumbled along 
with a noise like distant thunder. 

Fremont was obliged to construct a bridge. At length 



272 Fremont and '49 

all were safely across except one animal which was lost. 
Proceeding across country in a north-easterly direction, they 
arrived on June 3d at Fort Uinta, a post belonging to Roubi- 
deau, a well-known trader of the time. This was on the 
Uinta River where the U. S. Indian Agency was estab- 
lished at a later date. The latitude Fremont gives as 40° 
27' 45" and the longitude 109° 56' 42". There were a number 
of Canadians and Spaniards there, but Roubideau himself 
was absent and he thereby escaped the fate that befell all 
the rest, a short time after Fremont passed. The place was 
captured by the Utes ; the men were all killed and the women 
(Indians) carried off. 

Fremont, after securing at the doomed fort, some sugar, 
coffee, dried meat, and a cow, and a new member of the 
party as well, Auguste Archambeau, continued his way on 
the morning of June 5th, reaching, in twenty-five miles, 
Ashley's Fork of Green River now Ashley Creek. 

To the right of the travellers now was the great Uinta 
Valley, for a thousand miles the longest opening on the 
Green and Colorado rivers free from canyons. Just above 
the mouth of Ashley Creek is the end of Split- Mountain 
Canyon, the termination also of the first section of canyons, 
beginning with Flaming Gorge, and broken only by Brown's 
Hole towards which the caravan is heading. ^ Fremont kept 
to the left or west of these gorges, camping high up on the 
mountainside on the night of the 6th of June at an altitude 
of 7300 feet, whence they had "a view of the Colorado below, 
shut up amongst rugged mountains." He is hardly near 
enough to any canyon to be looking into it, and I surmise 
he sees the river in Island Park, a brief interval between 
Whirlpool and Split-Mountain canyons. It was in Uinta 
Valley (which extends from Split Mountain to the Canyon 

' The canyons of the Colorado may be divided into five general groups: 
(i) from Flaming Gorge to Uinta Valley; (2) Uinta Valley to Gunnison 
Crossing; (3) Gunnison Crossing to the mouth of the Paria (Pahreeah); (4) 
the Paria to the Grand Wash; and 5, all below that point. 




The Canyon of Lodore, Green River, Wyoming 

Frcmoni i.> ,844 passed jiist west of this canyon guint; north and at one point could look down 

into it. Ihis canyon is twenty miles long and 2500 feet deep 

Photograph by E. O. Beaman 



Fort Davy Crockett 273 

of Desolation), where the parallel of 40° 19' cuts the Green, 
that Escalante crossed in 1776 and travelled west as far 
as Utah Lake by very much the same route that Fremont 
has just come over. The Escalante account says 41° 19', 
but that would be in Green River Valley, which is out of the 
question. There is a mistake of one degree. 

After a pleasant journey, on May 7th, through beautiful 
little valleys and a high mountain country (east end of the 
Uinta Mountains) they descended at evening through a 
steep and rocky ravine into Brown's "Hole," now Brown's 
Park, the name having been changed by Major Powell for 
the sake of euphony, and because the "Hole" is a fine park- 
like valley, and not a hole in any sense. I once met a pioneer 
who was much nettled at what he considered an unwarranted 
liberty which Powell had taken with this established name 
of the country. On the way down they killed several moun- 
tain sheep. The park is eighteen or twenty miles long and 
the river meanders slowly through it. 

Brown's Hole was a noted place in the fur-trading days, 
and Fort Davy Crockett stood on the left bank not far from 
where Fremont encamped after crossing the expanse of 
Green River, a width of several hundred yards at this season, 
the river being swollen to the top of its bank. It took a day to 
get over. Fremont states that he was informed that the lower 
end of the valley was the most eastern point of the Colorado, 
which is correct. The latitude of the camp was 40° 46' 27'', 
only a couple of miles above the place where the river disap- 
pears, through the magnificent Gate of Lodore, into Lodore 
Canyon,' a gateway of solid, bare red rocks two thousand 
feet high, bearing from the camp south, 20° east. Near the 
camp was the ruin of an old fort which was probably Fort 
Davy Crockett, owned by Thompson, Craig, and St. Clair. 

The Fort [Davy Crockett] [said Farnham, who visited it in 
1839] is a hollow square of one story log cabins, with roofs and 

' Named from Southey's poem. 
18 



274 Fremont and '49 

floors of mud, constructed in the same manner as those of Fort 
WilHam [Bent's]. Around these we found the conical skin lodges 
of the squaws of the white trappers, who were away on their 
fall hunt, and also the lodges of a few Snake Indians who had 
preceded their tribe to this, their winter haunt. . . . And 
indeed when all the independent trappers are driven by approach- 
ing winter into this delightful retreat; and the whole Snake 
village 2 or 3000 strong . . . pitch their lodges around the Fort, 
and the dances and merry makings of a long winter are thoroughly 
commenced, there is no want of customers [for the wares of a 
trader named Robinson]. 

When IVTajor Powell on his second descent of the Colo- 
rado, on which I accompanied him, arrived here he camped 
for several days at the Gate of Lodore. In this canyon the 
fall is continuous and violent, and at high water the descent 
through it in a boat is hazardous, but feasible for cautious 
persons with proper boats and life jackets. 

Leaving Brown's Park by the east end, up Vermilion 
Creek, they followed a small branch into a remarkable 
canyon very narrow, and on leaving it they were soon in 
another about 1500 feet deep and narrower than the last. 
Coming through this, in a north direction, they reached a 
small pond beside which they made the noon camp. Then 
came a rough country, barren and dry. They camped on 
Vermilion Creek, and the next day, after passing through a 
similar region, night found them on the "Elk Head River," 
in latitude 41° 01' 48". This appears to be the Little Snake 
River of to-day, Elk Head Creek being farther vSouth in 
Colorado, and like Little Snake, a tributary of the Yampa. 
A second time they camped on Little Snake in latitude 41° 
01' 11". He calls this the principal fork of the Yampa which 
identifies it as Little Snake, Walker and Carson as well as 
Fitzpatrick must have had the names of the rivers as they 
were known to the trappers of that day, but Fremont either 
misunderstood them, or the Little Snake was then also 
called Elk Head. 



On the Divide 275 

This region was considered a very dangerous one on 
account of the hostility of Indians ranging here, and strong 
measures for defence were taken. On the nth of June, the 
caravan continued up this stream and camped near the 
mouth of St. Vrain's Fork, up which the trail led. A few 
miles farther on was the place where Fraeb had been killed 
and his party so badly cut to pieces by the Indians. They 
passed a place where Carson's party once was attacked at 
close range and one of his men received five bullets in 
his body. The region abounded in good water and grass, 
and the hunters brought in mountain sheep and buffalo 
meat. Antelope and elk were started up and the country 
appeared to be full of game. 

St. Vrain's Fork was left on June 13, 1844, and they 
headed for the summit of ' ' the dividing ridge, ' ' and at noon by 
a good trail stood oh the top at an altitude of eight thousand 
feet. They rejoiced once more to be on waters of the eastern 
slope and descended a little stream called Pullam's Fork, a 
tributary of the Platte. In the afternoon they saw before 
them the valley of the North Platte, with other familiar sights, 
and now had fairly completed their long circuit. Fremont 
had still no intention of following his former road back. In- 
stead, he wished to investigate the "three parks," to the 
south, and he turned up the North Platte in that direction. 
There was an abundance of water, plenty of wood, and all 
kinds of game, as well as fine trout in the streams, which he 
does not mention, probably not having tried to catch any. 
As they went up the river the valley narrowed, till it became 
a gorge through which they passed into "New Park, " as the 
trappers then called North Park, "a beautiful circular valley 
of thirty miles in diameter walled in all round with snowy 
mountains, rich with water and grass." It had an area of 
seven hundred square miles of grazing land. On June 15th, 
they camped just where the river enters the gorge in latitude 
40° 52' 44" at an altitude of 7720 feet. Marching on south 
up the North Platte, West Fork, in this delightful region, they 



276 Fremont and '49 

passed over the Continental Divide again, on June 17th, by 
an easy trail, through Muddy Pass, as it is now called, "a 
pass which was one of the most beautiful we had ever seen. " 
They were now in Middle Park, and once more on the 
waters of the Colorado. This valley they called by the name 
of that time, "Old Park." 

That night they camped on "a small tributary of Grand 
River, " the Muddy. When they started in the morning, 
their scouts soon signalled from a hill "Indians." It was a 
party of thirty Arapahos, men, women, and children. Their 
village was not a great way off, and when Fremont had made 
them some presents they quickly returned to it apparently 
in no friendly mood. The caravan was immediately placed 
in as defensive a position as possible on the banks of Grand 
River, in an open place among the willows, with the river be- 
hind. Barely had these hasty preparations been completed 
when about two hundred warriors in battle array appeared. 
The American flag was planted between, and a truce fol- 
lowed ; then a treaty of peace, but the travellers were obliged 
to go to the village and camp there, which they did in as 
strong a position as they could secure. Nothing happened 
except a few articles stolen. In the morning they said fare- 
well to their imperative hosts, and proceeded for about 
eight miles, when they came to the canyon by which Grand 
River leaves the valley, and camped in latitude 39° 57' 26". 
Here they ferried over the goods and made the animals swim. 
The Blue River comes in at this place and Fremont men- 
tions it but not by name. Up the left or west bank of this 
stream on the 20th, they journeyed crossing numerous 
foaming torrents, surrounded by the fragrance of pines amid 
delightful weather. There were many buffalo and "the 
hunters came into camp with the meat of seven cows." 

A fire they saw opposite their camp that night proved to 
be that of six trappers, who joined them in the morning. 
Two of their number had been killed by Indians ; one recently, 
while out alone, by the Arapahos just passed. The Fremont 



Over the Range 277 

hunters went back with the trappers to bring up their camp, 
but while there all were surrounded by a party of the Arapa- 
hos who said the whole village was now moving over to 
Bayou Salade (South Park) to attack a large force of Utes, 
and they wanted the white men to go along and help. 
Carson told them the party was too far ahead to turn back, 
but would join them in the Bayou Salade, which satisfied 
them, and they went forward to the fray. The caravan 
gradually ascended the middle branch that had been chosen 
some distance back, while the Arapahos had gone by a left- 
hand one that led to a better pass. In the afternoon the 
great divide was reached, at an altitude estimated, from an 
observation 800 feet lower, to be 1 1 ,200 feet. The two chief 
passes in this vicinity are Hoosier and Breckenridge, three 
or four miles apart along the divide. Hoosier is 10,309, and 
Breckenridge, 11,503. Judging from the altitude it was 
Hoosier Pass by which the Fremont party crossed. 

Immediately below was a green valley ; South Park, then 
called Bayou Salade. ^ They descended to a small creek and 
camped in latitude 39° 20' 24". Fremont thought this might 
be the head of the Fontaine qui Bouit or the "remotest head 
of the South Fork of the Platte. " It was the latter. In- 
formation he had obtained told him the head of the main 
Arkansas River was just across "the rocky wall" (west), 
and this was correct. He had no time to cross over to it for 
investigation, and on the 23d of June, 1844, he kept on do\\nn 
the stream they were on, by an excellent buffalo trail. Near 
the middle of the day they discovered a cavalcade of Indians 
coming down a slope, and they hastened to secure them- 
selves in good order for a battle, for it was thought this might 
be the party of Arapaho warriors, returning from their attack 
on the Utes. It turned out to be a party of women of the 
Ute band which was the object of the Arapaho expedition, and 

' Farnham says it was called Bayou Salade, "from the circumstance that 
native rock salt is found in some parts of it." — Travels in the Great Western 
Prairies, end of chapter iv. 



278 Fremont and '49 

which they said was now engaged in the fight. At the pros- 
pect of battle, the Indian custom is to send their women and 
children to some place of safety, or at least away from the 
battle-ground. "They filled the air with cries and lamenta- 
tions which made us understand that some of their chiefs 
had been killed." On the other side of a low, piney ridge 
directly ahead, the battle was going on, only a few hundred 
yards away, and the women implored the white men to go 
over and assist their men, who, though taken by surprise, 
were, in their opinion, now rather getting the best of the 
situation. 

The cracking of rifles was plainly heard and it was an 
exciting moment, but Fremont, though a young man, was, 
as we have seen, judicious, and he had no desire to become 
involved in this affair, so he kept cautiously along, with the 
pines between him and the battle-field, with men on the top 
of the ridge to give any necessary warning. "As we passed 
by the village, which was immediately below us, horsemen 
were galloping to and fro, and groups of people were gathered 
around those who were wounded or dead, and who were 
being brought in from the field. We continued to press on, 
and, crossing another fork, which came in from the right, 
after having made fifteen miles from the village, fortified 
ourselves strongly in the pines, a short distance from the 
river." 

They had plainly seen Pike's Peak during the afternoon 
and from this camp it bore N. 87, E., by compass. They 
left the river the next day, the 24th of June, 1844, and 
bearing south-easterly had several days' very hard travel, in 
a rugged mountainous district, and on the morning of the 
28th, found themselves at the eastern foot of the range. 
The main road, from South Park, afterwards went down 
Currant Creek to the Arkansas, and there was undoubtedly 
an Indian trail that way, but Fremont appears to have cut 
across to Oil Creek, then to the head of Ute Creek, and 
finally to Beaver Creek, which he descended to the valley, a 



Bent's Fort ' 279 

very difficult and laborious road. This particular region 
seems to have been the one in which he was fated to have a 
hard time, and here, Pike before him, had gone through some 
fearful experiences. Villi jalmar Stefansson has said that, 
"Adventure is the result of incompetence on the part of 
someone," and this is a truth, though one which some, who 
have had adventures, do not wilHngly admit, particularly 
when the incompetence is brought home to themselves. 

The party was soon at Pueblo, arriving on the 28th of 
June, and they found the place flourishing. They met some 
old acquaintances, and were told that another settlement had 
been established on the Arkansas, thirty miles above. On 
July 1st, the expedition reached Bent's Fort (Fort William) 
where they were cordially welcomed by George Bent, and 
where Carson, Walker, and two others, being now at home, 
remained. This fort, founded in 1829, was one of the most 
important places in the West for many years. It was about 
100 by 150 feet in dimensions, with walls of adobe about 
six feet thick and eighteen feet high, and was entered by a 
gateway in which were a pair of immense plank doors. At 
the north-west and south-east comers were bastions. Inside 
there were a corral for the animals and a division for the 
shops, dwellings, etc., the latter commanded by carronades 
in the bastions. All floors and roofs were of adobe, in Mexi- 
can and Puebloan fashion. At the time of Fremont's visit 
it was in full operation, employing from 80 to 100 men. 
Among other celebrities was Charlotte, a cook of African 
parentage, who declared she was "de onlee lady in de dam 
Injun country!" as Ruxton tells it. 

On July 5, 1844, Fremont left the comfortable fort and 
headed indirectly for home, following a waggon-road down 
the Arkansas, and passing through a large band of Sioux and 
Cheyennes, who had been east to battle with Kiowas and 
Comanches. They had killed fifteen Dela wares, inciden- 
tally, and at that time had lost several of their own party. 
Fremont had no trouble with them. "Dispersed over the 



28o Fremont and '49 

plain in scattered bodies of horsemen and family groups of 
women and children, with dog trains carrying baggage, and 
long lines of pack horses, their appearance was picturesque 
and imposing." The dogs were loaded by means of the 
travois, two long poles crossed at the dog's neck and allowed 
to trail behind on the ground, the load being laid on the 
sticks just back of the dog. This was the original primitive 
method of packing dogs when the Amerindian tribes had not 
yet secured the horse, the dog then being their sole beast of 
burden. Later they used horses in the same way. On the 
morning of the 6th, the caravan left the Arkansas River, 
going north-easterly across the plains for examination of that 
region, and on the 9th camped on the Smoky Hill Fork in 
latitude 38° 51' 15". Proceeding along the Smoky Hill on 
the loth they were at latitude 38° 52' 22", on the 13th at 38'' 
45' 57"» S'lid next they reached a camp of Pawnees. They 
went to them expecting good treatment but got the reverse, 
although these Indians were now receiving annuities from 
the Government. Fremont went on fifteen miles to camp in 
latitude 38° 42' 33", and learned afterwards that the Paw- 
nees would have attacked him but for the opposition of the 
Pawnee Loups. The last camp on the Smoky Hill was in 
38° 43' 32'', longitude, 98° 17' 31". The only person injured 
on this stretch of the way was Alexis Ayot who was accident- 
ally shot in the leg. Otherwise they met with no disasters, 
and camped on the Santa Fe Trail, in latitude 38° 33' 22" 
whence they followed it in to "the little town of Kansas, 
on the banks of the Missouri River," the Kansas City of 
to-day. 

They had been out fourteen months and not a man had 
been sick in all that time, which apparently is proof that too 
much to eat and too much comfort are not good for mankind. 
They would probably have had a different record at home. 
Selling off the stock, a steamboat was embarked on for St. 
Louis, where they arrived August 6, 1844, and where the 
party was disbanded. Little Pablo was taken into the family 



St. Louis Again 



281 



of Senator Benton, where he exhibited "docility, intelligence, 
and amiability," though this promise was not maintained. 
He preferred this to being sent back to Mexico by the 
Mexican Minister. The Chinook, who had hung on so long, 
to see the whites, was taken to Washington, given several 
months at the "Columbia College, " then sent to Philadelphia, 
and learned to read, write, and speak English, "with some 
fluency." And thus ended one of the most extensive, pro- 
longed, and successful exploring expeditions ever undertaken 
by an American, and it should stand to the everlasting credit 
of Fremont. 




CHAPTER XIII 

WASHINGTON TO MONTEREY 

Captain by Brevet — Washington Wants California — Mexico Moving for War 
— The Third Fremont Expedition — Captain Frdmont in the Secrets — 
Off to Bent's Fort — Up the Arkansas — Over the Wasatch to Salt Lake — ■ 
Across the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada — Sutter's Fort Again 
— ^A Lost Party — Encounter with Horse-thief Indians — California's 
Unrest — Micheltorena Deposed — Fremont at Monterey. 

IN St. Louis, all this long time, Mrs. Fremont had been 
waiting for the return of her husband. As he had been 
absent six months longer than he had planned to be, 
there was much anxiety among his family and friends, when 
weeks and months passed, after the last word was received 
from him on the Columbia in 1843, and still there was silence. 
With only a brief stop, he proceeded to Washington, where 
he immediately pushed the preparation of his report on his 
second expedition with the able assistance of his admirable 
wife. Three of his friends had died during his absence, 
Nicollet, Hassler, and Senator Linn. 

The completed copy of the Report was handed in March 
I, 1845. It created a sensation. Depicting, as it did, the 
vast region he had traversed, in colours so different from 
others, it astonished the Government, and, indeed, the whole 
country. The report of the first expedition was combined 
with it, and Congress ordered 10,000 copies to be printed 
at once for distribution. Publishers everywhere, at home 
and abroad, took it up, and numerous private editions were 
speedily put on the market. Some of these ran into many 
thousands of copies, surpassing the edition printed by the 

282 



Captain lM"emont 283 

government. The newspapers were full of accounts of the 
Lieutenant's doings, and he was praised in every quarter. 
He was the hero of the hour, as he well deserved to be. He 
had accomplished an extraordinary journey, passing success- 
fully through many difficulties, and without friction with 
his men, all of whom seemed to adore him. 

General Winfield Scott, then the head of the army, and 
personally unacquainted with Fremont, moved to bestow on 
him the double brevet of First Lieutenant and Captain, 
honours which he had abundantly earned, even though he 
had not passed through West Point. President Tyler, 
thereupon, made the appointment to Captain by brevet, 
"to rank as such from the jist day of July, 1844, for gallant 
and highly meritorious services in two expeditions comma?tded 
by himself: the first to the Rocky Mountains, which terminated 
October lyth, 1842: and the second beyond those mountains, 
which terminated July Jist, 1844.'' 

In his Memoirs, Fremont rem.arks: "This brevet has 
the greater value for me because it is the only recognition 
for services rendered that T have received from my own 
government."^ 

Senator Benton did not need to insist on the court- 
martial which after the departure of the second expedition 
he had demanded to justify the howitzer incident. The 
memory of that petty mutiny appeared to be thoroughly 
smothered by the triumphant return of Fremont. Nothing 
succeeds like success, and a court-martial of the distin- 
guished explorer at this time would have been disastrous 
for those ordering it on such slight grounds. Fremont had 
made a wonderful tour, through foreign territory, in the 
face of opposition and prohibition, and he had made a 
thrilling report that fascinated the whole civilised world. 

^Memoirs, p. 418. Towards the end of his life Congress roused itself and 
appointed him Major-General in 1890, three months before his death, when 
he had reached the age of 77. This was four years after the above remark 
was printed. 



284 Frdmont and '49 

The American government, thanks to the tenacity of 
the circle, now possessed a knowledge of Mexican territory 
which Mexico itself did not have. And why was our govern- 
ment so gratified with these results? Because it had been 
a foregone conclusion, for several years, that Texas would be 
annexed to the United States and that war would immedi- 
ately follow, as Mexico had declared it would. California 
Alta from the Colorado to the Pacific as well as New Mexico, 
it was believed, would then surely fall to the Americans. 
The Administration was keeping close watch on the desired 
territory for it was certain to be ours if our flag went up 
promptly. 

The very day that Fremont handed in his report, March 
I, 1845, Congress by joint resolution admitted Texas, thus 
throwing down the gauntlet to Mexico. From that moment 
war was automatically begun, Mexico having declared such 
action to be a cause of war. Actual hostilities did not 
commence at once, but the conditions were such that they 
could not long be averted, and the reader must bear this in 
mind when judging the actions of Fremont in California 
at a later date. As to the intentions of our government if 
Polk's effort to purchase the country failed he knew much 
that no one in California knew. 

Daniel Webster, then a Senator, though opposing the 
annexation of Texas and any war with Mexico, was pro- 
foundly interested in California, and held that the Bay of 
San Francisco would be "twenty times as valuable to us as 
all Texas." He invited Captain Fremont to dine with him, 
to talk over California, but even after this he continued in 
the belief that the harbours were all that was worth owning 
there. Polk, the new President, saw that the harbours could 
only be obtained with the land, and he endeavoured to buy 
the whole from Mexico but without success. George Ban- 
croft, the historian, Secretary of the Navy, united with him 
in this effort with no definite result. The na^^ was notified 
to be on the alert and allow no other nation to get the ad- 



Diplomacy 285 

vantage, and special instructions were sent to our Consul 
at Monterey, by Buchanan, Secretary of State. The docu- 
ment is diplomatically worded, and some of Fremont's severe 
critics point to it as an evidence of our lamb-like intentions 
towards Mexico's California possessions and condemn him as 
a usurper. Some of these critics apparently are determined 
to see no good whatever in Fremont or his doings, and they 
are so prejudiced against him that the value of their opinion 
is much impaired. 

Buchanan says most amiably in the document referred 
to: "This government has no ambitious aspirations to 
gratify and no desire to extend our Federal system over 
more territory than we already possess, unless by the free 
and spontaneous wish of the independent people of adjoin- 
ing territories," which is merely the polite language of the 
diplomat: it means little. Our flag had already once 
been run up over Mexican territory, Texas had been taken 
in with its absurd claim to Santa Fe, a city two and a half 
centuries old, and all the eastern part of New Mexico where 
it possessed, so far as I can judge, not the faintest right, and 
the United States was already planning to take the action, 
the move to the Rio Grande, which it soon did take, and 
which precipitated hostiHties. ' It is clear, therefore, that 
Buchanan's phrases were empty indeed, and to hold up his 
general instructions to a consul as a condemnation of Fre- 
mont's action when on the ground, is hardly sensible. And 
this is specially true when we remember that the long and 
difficult journey of investigation which we have just followed 
was authorised by our government, and directed through 
the territory of the very power Buchanan speaks of so 
tenderly, contrary to the wishes of that power. Though 

' While this move did not take place till March, 1846, it was advocated 
by General Taylor in October, 1845, and no doubt had been discussed by Ben- 
ton, Bancroft, Buchanan, and the President even before Frdmont left Washing- 
ton. That it would be followed by immediate war was certain; there was no 
alternative for Mexico. 



286 Fremont and '49 

Fremont then made the trip through Mexican territory ap- 
parently as an afterthought, it is hardly likely that this was 
actually the case, and the matter must have been under- 
stood beforehand by the circle and by high officials. The 
search for the Buenaventura River probably had a purpose 
other than mere exploration. 

President Polk, recently installed (March, 1845), was 
determined to acquire California. The critical situation 
with Mexico prohibited further amicable negotiations to- 
wards that end; in fact the "war cloud on the horizon" was 
rapidly shaping itself for a storm. Bancroft, Buchanan, 
and Senator Dix, a member of the Senate Military Committee, 
came frequently to confer with Senator Benton, who was 
chairman of the Senate Military Committee. The whole 
situation was frequently and minutely discussed, and yet 
there are persons who appear to believe that Fremont, the 
son-in-law and confidant of Senator Benton, had no know- 
ledge beyond that which any citizen might have, of the plans 
and intentions of the government. It is more than likely 
that he knew a great deal that he could not state, publicly 
or privately, even at a later period, in his own defence. 

Secretary Buchanan brought confidential Spanish let- 
ters, to be read by Dix and Benton, who were versed in 
that language, while Buchanan did not know it, and feared 
to trust translations to uncertain persons. These meetings 
were held in Benton's library, and translations were made by 
Mrs. Fremont and her elder sister. Is it likely, then, that 
Captain Fremont, under these circumstances, did not re- 
ceive much knowledge that he could not talk about, and 
which at a later period influenced his actions? Mexico was 
already mobilising troops on the frontier, preparatory to 
executing her threat of war in the event of the annexation 
of Texas and any endeavour, on the part of the United 
States, to occupy the territory beyond the Nueces, which 
Texas so unjustly claimed. 

It is significant that, at this juncture, a third expedition 



War in Sight 287 

into Mexican territory was projected. "And in arranging 
this expedition," remarks Captain Fremont, 

the eventuahtics of war were taken into consideration . . . 
Mexico at war with the United States, would inevitably favour 
English protection for California. English citizens were claim- 
ing payment for loans and indemnity for losses. Our relations 
with England were already clouded, and in the event of war with 
Mexico, if not anticipated by us, an English fleet would certainly 
take possession of San Francisco Bay.^ 

The "possible political results" of the expedition were fre- 
quently discussed in high circles. "My private instruc- 
tions were, if needed, to foil England by carrying the war 
now imminent with Mexico into its territory of California." ' 
It is clear that Fremont did not start on this third expedi- 
tion with his eyes shut, or with any lack of knowledge of 
our government's intentions or plans. It is also clear that 
there was more military design in that expedition than •■ 
appeared on the surface. Secretary Bancroft approved it, 
as well as Senator Benton; they were friends of long stand- 
ing, and no doubt with Fremont went over the ground many 
times. 

California, to all the foremost officials in the Washington 
government, "stood out as the chief subject of the impending 
war," and they intended to secure it for the United States. 
California was about to fall to one or the other of the waiting 
nations, as it was certain Mexico could not hold it. "This 
was talked over fully during the time of preparation of the 
third expedition, and the contingencies anticipated and 
weighed. . . . For me no distinct course or definite instruc- 
tion could be laid down, but the probabilities were made 
known to me, as well as what to do when they became facts. 

' Memoirs, p. 423. It should be noted also that the United States had 
no land forces on the Pacific. 

'"The Conquest of California," by John Charles Frdmont. Century 
Magazine, vol. xix., N. S., p. 919. 



288 Fremont and '49 

The distance was too great for timely communication; but 
failing this I was given discretion to act."^ In judging the 
course of the Captain in the scenes to come, the reader 
should weigh well all these statements and all the related 
circumstances. 

Captain Fremont left Washington for his third journey, 
accompanied only by Dodson, his faithful coloured man, and 
Chinook, who had now satisfied his ambition and was ready to 
return to his Oregon home. Little Pablo had been left at St. 
Louis to be educated, as before noted, but his character turned 
out to be bad and he was later not a credit to his country. ^ 
Mrs. Fremont, who had intended to go to St. Louis with the 
Captain, was detained by the illness of her mother. 

Preuss had purchased a comfortable house in Washington 
and he remained there, his place as topographer being taken 
by Edward M. Kern, of Philadelphia, a man of equal integ- 
rity and intelligence. The funds provided for this expedi- 
tion were larger than for the former ones, "and in view of 
uncertain conditions the force was suitably increased." 
It might be asked why, in view of these uncertain conditions, 
a topographical siu"vey in a foreign country, about to engage 
in war, was deemed necessary, were it not evident that this 
was really no topographical expedition but only one of the 
lines of action which the desire to secure California dictated. 
Against the rag-tag soldiery of Mexico stationed in Cali- 
fornia, the sturdy band which Fremont was assembling 
would be a formidable antagonist. He purchased a dozen 
of the finest rifles to be had, with the plan to offer them as 
prizes for the best marksmanship; marksmanship being so 
important a part of topographical work! 

^Memoirs, p. 423. 

2 Fremont states that Pablo, after some years, was reported to be the 
noted California bandit Joaquin. This was Joaquin Murieta who entered 
California in 1849, "a bright, keen, handsome youth of 18." He was robbed 
of his mining claim, and beaten, and his "brother " was wantonly hung. This 
started him off as a bandit. Pablo had no brother but the man hung may 
have been his chum and partner. It was a dramatic career. 



Owens and Carson 289 

Fremont's animals, which had been left on pasture, were 
found in excellent condition. Many of his old men joined 
him, among them Joseph Walker, Godey, and his favourite, 
Basil Lajeunesse, and Theodore Talbot. In addition were 
Lieutenants Abert and Peck of the Topographical Corps, 
and James McDowell, a nephew of Mrs. Benton. Besides 
these there were twelve Delaware Indians, specially selected. 

The expedition arrived, on August 2, 1845, at Bent's 
Fort on the Arkansas, previously described. Here a sepa- 
rate party was arranged imder the command of Lieutenant 
Abert, assisted by Lieutenant Peck, to explore the country 
to the southward, "embracing the Canadian and other 
waters, " in other words it was a further encroachment on 
Mexican territory. It is hardly necessary therefore to 
delude ourselves by calling this a topographical survey; 
it was nothing less than a military reconnaissance. The 
Abert party consisted of thirty-three well armed men, with 
Fitzpatrick as guide. McDowell also went with this divi- 
sion, which was not to remain out over the winter. 

A messenger sent to Kit Carson, at his ranch on the 
Cimarron, brought not only him, but his partner Dick 
Owens, also an experienced frontiersman. "That Owens 
was a good man," remarks the Captain, "it is enough to say 
that he and Carson were friends." Of Carson, Godey, and 
Owens, Fremont always speaks in the very highest terms 
and declares they might have become marshals under 
Napoleon. 

The Third Expedition, composed, after the departure of 
the Abert division, of sixty "experienced and self-reliant 
men, equal to any emergency likely to occur and willing to 
meet it," thoroughly equipped, was a soldierly affair, with 
little semblance to a topographical survey party. They 
started from Bent's Fort, August 16, 1845, and on the 20th 
were at the mouth of the Fontaine qui Bouit, now Pueblo. 
Here a portable transit instrument was set up and one of 
four base stations was established. "The longitude, 104° 



290 Fremont and '49 

42' 41'', was determined by moon culminations and the 
latitude, 38° 15' 18'', by sextant observations of Polaris 
and stars in the south." ^ 

Proceeding up the Arkansas they camped on the 26th 
at the mouth of the "Great Canyon" now called the Royal 
Gorge, and the next morning left the river, passing "over 
a bench of the mountain, which the trappers believed to be 
the place where Pike was taken prisoner by the Mexicans." 
This was an error on the part of the trappers, as Pike was 
taken prisoner on the right, or west, side of the Rio Grande, 
five miles up the Rio Conejos, a good many miles south 
of this. The weather was fine and travelling a pleasure 
through the beautiful country, the same where Pike met with 
disaster in winter, and where Fremont himself was doomed 
to some sad days in the future. 

Following up the Arkansas they arrived on September 
2d in Mexican territory on the headwaters, latitude 39° 
20' 38", longitude 106° 2f 15". Here they found a small 
herd of buffalo and secured plenty of meat ; other game was 
also abundant. A few days after this Fremont was riding 
alone, and in pursuing a buffalo his pistol was accidentally 
discharged, sending the ball past his own head. He thought 
if he had been killed he might never have been found; but 
if Carson, Owens, and Godey were the woodsmen they were 
thought to be, they would have gone to the spot, on his 
trail, like bloodhounds. One of the Delawares got a fat cow 
from the same herd, which was the last buffalo they saw. 

The night of September 4, 1845, they camped on Piney 
River, and on the 5th they camped again on the same stream 
in latitude 39° 39' \2" , longitude 106° 44' 21". Here they 
caught a strange looking fish which had a hump on its back 
"rising straight up immediately behind the head" and from 
this peculiarity it was called buffalo fish. We caught the 

' The instruments on this expedition consisted of a portable transit 
(telescope 26" long) by Young of Philadelphia, a sextant by Troughton, a 
sextant by Gambey, and two pocket chronometers by Appleton. 



An Old Crossing 291 

same kind in Green River and called them humpbacks. 
As I remember them they uttered a squeal when killed, 
which struck us as being as singular as their shape. 

From Piney River the party continued westerly to Grand 
River, and crossing that stream some miles above the mouth 
of Piney River, they struck the head of White River and kept 
down it to Green River, which was crossed at the mouth of the 
Uinta, a mile or two above the mouth of White River. They 
had followed, no doubt, the same Indian highway, a well 
defined trail, which with two companions I once tramped 
over on foot, going in the other direction. In 1861, Cap- 
tain Berthoud laid out a road, from Denver to Salt Lake, 
which came down White River, over the same course, and 
crossed just above the mouth of the Uinta. This place 
evidently had been a regular crossing of Green River for a 
very lojig time. We found there on the west bank an old 
Cottonwood tree, covered with names that had been cut in 
from time to time. There is no good crossing of Green 
River below this till one reaches Gunnison Valley, 150 miles, 
where the Spanish Trail, Gunnison, and other trails went 
over, and where the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway 
now crosses; about latitude 39°. 

The bottom around the mouth of White River was 
grassy and level and when we were there in 1871 it was 
thick with antelope and deer. A more beautiful stretch of 
bottom would be hard to find. Fremont was now nearing 
his trail of 1844 coming east from Utah Lake, and continuing 
up the Uinta, he reached it, crossed it at about longitude 
110° 15' 00", and went over to the head of the Timpanogos 
(Provo Creek) on October 2d, which he followed down to 
Utah Lake, reaching it October loth. He camped on the 
shore at its outlet at the mouth of "Hugh's Creek," on 
October 12th. On the 13th he went on to Salt Lake, where 
he made his second general astronomical base, in latitude 
40° 45' 53", longitude 112° 06' 08". Two weeks were 
occupied here in topographic work. Captain Fremont would 



292 Fremont and '49 

not now have described Utah Lake as "connecting with the 
Great Salt Lake, . . . but it is fresh water, while the other 
is not only salt, but a saturated solution of salt, and here 
is a problem which requires to be solved." He had also 
earlier spoken of Utah Lake as "the southern limb of the 
Great Salt Lake."^ It was these statements which Brigham 
Yoimg criticised, as before noted. 

The Indians informed Fremont that, at the present low 
stage of the lake, he could ride across the shallows to the 
"large peninsular island" near the south-eastern shore and 
near the camp. With Carson and several others he rode 
out to it, the water "nowhere above the saddle-girths," and 
the floor of the lake "a sheet of salt resembling soft ice, into 
which the horses* feet sank to the fetlocks." The island 
had grass and water, and numerous antelope, some of which 
were killed for food. From this grateful circumstance the 
Captain gave the name "Antelope " to the island, which it still 
bears. The latitude of the summit peak was 40° 58' 48". 

When the hunting party again arrived at their camp, 
they foimd there an old Ute who said all the antelope on the 
island belonged to him and that they must pay him for 
those they had killed. This claim seems to have struck the 
Captain as being something ridiculous, but nevertheless, 
"Pleased with his readiness," he gave him some presents 
in compensation. The old man was satisfied at this settle- 
ment of what Fremont calls "his imaginary claim." But 
the claim was not imaginary, in all probability. The white 
men of that day did not know that each tribal country was 
apportioned among its members with considerable exactness, 
and this island doubtless was this particular man's domain. 
He owned it just as much as if he had a recorded deed of it. 
In Arizona, we once named a valley "Kwagunt" because 
a Pai Ute of that name said the valley was his, that his 
father had given it to him, and as he was a generally truth- 
ful person we believed him. Many of the clashes between 

' Report, p. 273-74; Memoirs, p. 388. 



Into the Desert 293 

the whites and the Indians came from the refusal of the 
former to admit the Indian claims. 

Several days in the middle of the month were rainy with 
snow on the peaks and down to within 2000 feet of the valley 
floor. On October 23d as they were moving to a new camp 
they saw an Indian drinking at a rivulet, which they were 
surprised to find salt. Indians used to eat salt occasionally 
as a white person might eat candy, and it is likely that this 
Indian was drinking the salt water with a relish. The last 
camp around the lake was near the south-western shore in 
latitude 40° 38' 17", longitude 113° 05' 09". As they looked 
west from any neighbouring mountain height the eye met, 
beyond the desert, only a succession of desolate ranges, 
"like looking edgewise along the teeth of a saw." 

Fremont desired to strike across the unknown part of 
the Great Basin, unknown so far as any record went. 
Neither Carson nor Walker had any knowledge of this 
western desert according to Fremont, yet this is somewhat 
incomprehensible, for Walker in 1833 went west to the head 
of the Humboldt and followed it to its sink in the lake. 
With forty men of Bonneville's force, and others not con- 
nected with it, he had set out and they soon lost themselves 
in the desert now confronting Fremont. After much suf- 
fering they struck the head of Ogden's River (Humboldt), 
— so called after Peter Skene Ogden, who was the first white 
man recorded to visit it, — and followed it to the "sink," 
whence they crossed the Sierra, as before related, and went 
to Monterey. Walker was now a member of Fremont's 
party, and yet the Captain says none of his men knew any- 
thing about this region! The Indians said there was no 
water and that no one had been known to cross the plain 
beyond, showing the frequent inaccuracy of Indian informa- 
tion ; not only Walker, but Ogden before him, had been across 
the region, as well as Jedediah Smith in 1827, and the 
Bartleson-Bidwell party in 1841. 

This desert is flat for a long distance. It is dry and 



294 Fremont and '49 

bleached. Under the noonday sun the mirage plays fanci- 
fully across it like a will-o'-the-wisp. Now one sees the blue 
and rippling waters of a lake; the next moment perceives 
nothing but sand is there. Little bushes are drawn up to 
the height of forest trees and then are perceived floating 
aloft in the palpitating air with no foundation whatever. 
Nothing is what it seems to be except the dryness and the 
desiccating heat, and water becomes the only valuable thing 
in the world. 

They saw far off a mountain peak which suggested 
fertility. Fremont decided to attempt to reach it. He 
succeeded in persuading an Indian to act as a guide. Carson 
and several others were to start out at night and if water 
were discovered at the mountain they were to set a signal 
smoke. Fremont, the next day, was to journey as far as 
possible and make a dry camp. Late that same day Fre- 
mont turned out across the barren floor, bare and smooth 
as if recently water had been standing upon it, a sage-bush 
here and there. As they marched on into the silent night, 
the guide became terrified, and Fremont paid him and let 
him depart. Near morning a camp was made, and before 
daybreak, Archambeau, guided by the signal fires kept burn- 
ing, rode in with news of water. In the afternoon the whole 
party reached the spring, a little rill which lost itself in the 
desert. The mountain from whose cheerful slope the water 
came, Fremont named Pilot Peak, latitude 41° 00' 28", 
longitude 114° 11' 09". Later this peak became a land- 
mark on the short cut to California known as the "Hastings 
Cut-off," laid out by Lansford W. Hastings. 

Resting a day here to allow the animals to pick up after 
the strain of the desert, they took up their march again on 
November i, 1845, winding their way westward through 
the short ranges, and camped at night at a spring in latitude 
40° 43' 29", longitude 114° 26' 22", near the present town of 
Shafter, Nevada, on the line of the Nevada Northern Rail- 
way. 



Humboldt River 295 

"The winter was now approaching," Fremont says, "and 
I had good reason to know what the snow would be in the 
Great Sierra. It was imprudent to Hnger long in the exami- 
nation of the Grea^ Basin." Here he decided to divide his 
party to gain time and information. But why this haste to 
get to the coast in California? The Great Basin was the 
least explored region: why, therefore, if this were purely an 
exploration party, mapping a foreign country, did not the 
Captain remain and study out these problems? The reason 
was apparently, as before stated, that this was no topo- 
graphical survey party, but was a military reconnaissance 
by a body of well-equipped soldiers, true shots and fearless. 
They were going to California with a military purpose. 
The Mexicans were concentrating their troops on the frontier 
before Fremont left Washington. It was only a question 
of a few weeks when the war would begin. The American 
army was to advance beyond the Nueces, into territory the 
Mexicans had never, for a moment, admitted was not still 
their own, and the result of such a move needed no interpreter. 
Fremont knew these things of course. It was imperative 
for him to reach California with his sixty men as speedily 
as possible, for they might be needed there any day. This 
was undoubtedly the reason for the rapidity of his advance, 
halting only by the way long enough to determine condi- 
tions, passes, watering places, etc., and keep his men and 
stock in good order. 

On the evening of the 8th of November they camped on 
a small creek to which Fremont gave the name of "Crane, " 
after one of his Delaware Indians; "one of the men he 
liked to have near him." Crane's Branch flowed into an- 
other stream "that was one of two forks forming a river to 
which I gave the name of Humboldt." ' In this he performed 
an act of injustice to one of his predecessors in the region, 
Peter Skene Ogden, the first white man on record to see and 

' Memoirs, p. 434. The first application of the name in the geography 
of North America. 



296 Fremont and '49 

describe this river. It was proper enough to honoirr Hum- 
boldt, but it should not have been done at the expense of 
Ogden, who by every rule of exploration and map-making 
was entitled to this distinction, and whose name already 
was attached to this river. Ogden was a Hudson Bay 
Company man, and, in the midst of all the jealousies and 
international prejudices, he performed an act of mercy at 
the time of the Whitman massacre which should endear 
him to all Americans. ^ Fremont, at this time, also named 
a nearby range of mountains, or as he calls it "a mountain," 
after Humboldt. 

The party was here divided. == The main body under 
Talbot, with Edward M. Kern as topographer, was to keep 
on down and survey the Humboldt to the " sink," with Joseph 
Walker as guide, and thence go on to the lake at the foot of the 
Sierra to which Fremont gives the name of Walker. This 
is somewhat puzzling, as he did not mention the lake now 
called Walker Lake on his former expedition. Probably 
Walker told him about the lake and indicated its position. 
"I had engaged Mr. Walker," the Captain says, "for guide 
in this part of the region to be explored, with which, and the 
southern part of the 'California Mountains' he was well 
acquainted." The two divisions were to meet at Walker 
Lake, which is very near the trail of 1844. 

For his own party, Fremont selected ten men, including 
some of the Delawares, and set off somewhat southerly, 
pushing on as rapidly as the nature of the country would 
allow. Good Indian trails were found everywhere, and they 
always led to water which was invariably on some mountain 
slope in a ravine. It was in this region that Walker's men 

' He induced the Indians to deliver the remaining families and took them 
to safety. See Peter Skene Ogden — Fur Trader, by T. C. Elliott. 

' See Report of Explorations across the Great Basin of Utah in iS^g, by Capt. 
J. H. Simpson, Washington, 1876, Appendix Q: The Journal of Mr. Edward 
M. Kern of his Explorations . . . under Capt. John C. Fremont, in 1845. 
Kern states that the division was made at Whitton Spring. He met with no 
serious difficulty. 



A Desert Wraith 297 

in 1833 had so cruelly shot the Indians they met, killing 
twenty-nine in one place, and it is not remarkable that a 
solitary Indian they surprised beside his camp-fire thought 
his end had come. All he could do was to offer the strangers 
some of the squirrels he was boiling, but the man was left in 
peace. The Delawares Hngered till Fremont whipped them 
up as he feared they had murderous designs. In spite of his 
care they carried off the Indian's bow and arrows, which the 
Captain compelled them to take back. A little farther on at 
one of the springs they had a visitation from a woman fully 
eighty years old, appearing out of the darkness like a wraith 
before the bright fire. She had supposed it a camp of her 
own people. Some antelope meat was given to her and she 
vanished. 

From near Shafter they went westward to Whitton 
Spring in latitude 40° 42' 13", longitude 114° 55'45", where 
they camped November 3d. On November 8th, as noted 
above, they were on Crane's Branch of the South Fork of 
the Humboldt in latitude 40° 17' 16" and longitude 115° 
46' 00". This was not far from a place now called Hun- 
tington, and they passed just south of Franklin Lake on 
the way. The next stretch was south to Basil's Creek in lati- 
tude 39° 11' 57" and longitude 117° 14' 12", not a great dis- 
tance from the present town of Cold Creek. Here the course 
struck westerly and southerly to a camp on the night of 
November i6th, in latitude 38° 49' 21" and longitude 117° 
16' 52", at some boiling springs in what is now the Big 
Smoky Valley. Southerly they proceeded down this valley, 
being one of the numerous longitudinal valleys between 
the mountain ranges referred to in Chapter II., to near San 
Antonio, or exactly speaking to latitude 38° 33' 17" and 
longitude 117° 24' 29", on what they called Moore's Creek, 
evidently the stream now known as the Peavine. 

Turning almost due west from this point, camp was 
made on the night of November 21, 1845, at Sagundai's 
Spring in latitude 38° 23' 11", longitude 118° 24' 51". This 



298 Fremont and '49 

was fifteen or twenty miles south-east of the present town 
of Hawthorne, Nevada. It will be noted that progress is 
much easier across these dry reaches than it was on the 
former expedition, when the desert character troubled and 
appalled the whole party. Experience had taught the Cap- 
tain much, though he states that here there was abundance of 
game and fine grass, and wood. ^ They were now approaching 
Walker Lake and turning to the north-west they reached its 
south end, not far from Hawthorne, and very near Thorne, 
in latitude 38° 35' i\", longitude 118° 32' 19", at a point 
Fremont describes as the "eastern shore of Walker Lake." 
This place was reached November 24, 1845, and here they 
were to wait for the other branch of the expedition to arrive 
via Humboldt River and Lake, which it did in three days. 
The weather had been generally not cold, with a snow-storm 
continuing through several nights with fair days. 

The sight of the grim wall of the Sierra Nevada once more 
looming before him reminded the Captain of the hard 
experiences of his winter crossing on the former expedition. 
With the prospect of heavy snows, he concluded not to 
risk his whole slow-moving party in an attempt to cross 
here, but to divide it again and send the slow, main body, 
under Talbot, southward along the eastern foot of the range 
to pass by the south into the San Joaquin Valley, Walker 
being once more sent as guide. The meeting of the two 
divisions was to take place "at a little lake in the valley of a 
river called the Lake Fork [King's River] of the Tulare 
Lake. . . . With a selected party of fifteen" the Captain 
was "to attempt the crossing of the mountain in order to 
get through to Sutter's Fort before the snow began to fall." 
There he expected to obtain all necessary supplies. 

He now proceeded north along the east side of Walker 
Lake, where the Nevada and California Railway runs, and 
on November 26th camped on Walker River three miles 
above its mouth, or near the present town of Schurz, 

* "The Conquest of California," Century Magazine, vol. xix., N.S., p. 920. 



On the Truckee 299 

Nevada, and on the 29th, at the most northern bend of the 
same stream in latitude 39° 09' 05" and longitude 119° 05' 
23'. He was on familiar ground, being near his trail of 
last year, and on the ist of December, 1845, he came to 
the stream which he had previously named Salmon Trout 
River, now the Truckee, up which was the route of the emi- 
grant trail of '49. This was the path by which the Stevens- 
Townsend party of 1844 had entered California, the first 
to take waggons across the Sierra. 

Fremont camped above the "lower cafion, " a few miles 
above Wadsworth, Nevada, in latitude 39° 33' 48". He was 
now also on the future line of the Central Pacific Railway. 
Continuing up the Truckee, the 4th of December found the 
party encamped "at its head on the east side of the pass in 
the Sierra Nevada," in latitude 39° 17' 12", longitude 120° 
15' 20''. As the Truckee heads in Lake Tahoe, it is plain 
that the Captain was somewhere else than at its head. 
Plotting his observations on the Truckee sheet of the U. 
S. G. S. map his position is found to be on Cold Creek about 
two miles south of the south shore of Donner Lake, inside 
the long loop which the Central Pacific Railway makes to 
surmount the range and arrive at Donner Pass. Fremont 
does not mention this lake, afterward named for the un- 
fortunate Donner party already referred to. 

Early the next morning they climbed "the rocky ridge 
which faces the eastern side, and at sunrise were on the 
crest of the divide, 7200 feet above the sea [Donner 
Pass is 7056]. . . . The emigrant road now passes here, 
following down a fork of Bear River, which leads from 
the pass into the Sacramento Valley." Thus, we see, there 
was a road that way even then — the one the Stevens- 
Townsend party had followed, but it could have been 
little more than the ruts left by the passage of their 
waggons. The night before Fremont had watched the pass 
anxiously, prepared to make an immediate crossing if snow 
began; but they were favoured with fair weather. There 



300 Fremont and '49 

was no snow in the pass and the overpowering condi- 
tions which destroyed the Donner party's efforts later 
were entirely absent. Finding the "emigrant road" rough, 
Fremont turned to the south, and camped in a mountain 
meadow.^ The following day they continued through a 
superb forest of tall trees, "of great height and uncommon 
size. The tall red columns standing closely on the clear 
ground, the filtered, flickering sunshine from their summits 
overhead, gave the dim religious light of cathedral isles, 
opening out on every side, one after the other, as we ad- 
vanced." On December 6th the camp was in latitude 39° 
11' 06", "on an affluent of the North Fork of the Rio de los 
Americanos,'* with a longitude of 120° 44' 24". Rapidly 
descending they soon reached a country of oaks where 
some of the large sweet acorns resembled Italian chestnuts 
in taste. On the 7th they were on "Martin's" Fork, lati- 
tude 39° 04' 11" and longitude 121° 07' 48'', and the next 
night camped in latitude 38° 53' 05", longitude 121° 08' 
49", on a stream Fremont named Hamilton Creek, at an 
elevation above the sea of only 500 feet. The temperature 
was mild and the. vegetation that of early spring. 

"The oak belt of the mountain is the favourite range of 
Indians," the Captain says. 

I found many small villages scattered through it. They select 
places near the streams where there are large boulders of 
granite rock, that show everywhere holes which they had used 
for mortars in which to pound the acorns. These are always 
pretty spots. The clean, smooth granite rocks standing out 
from the green of the fresh grass over which the great oaks 
throw their shade, and the clear running water, are pleasant to 
eye and ear. 

' Doubtless he found a trail leading that way. It was about here, ap- 
parently, that Jedediah Smith came over the Sierra from the American River 
— so named after he had camped on it — on his way east in 1827. Bidwell 
states that Fremont followed substantially what was later the emigrant road. 




I803-I880. 



Captain John A. Sutter 

(Jnh.inn August Sutter) 
One of the most conspicuous figures of California Alta in the 40's 
Print Collection, New York Library 



About Sutter 301 

The whole party greatly enjoyed this radical change from 
the dry journey across the Great Basin. 

On the 9th of December they were on the American 
opposite "Grimes' House" or Ranch, in latitude 38° 34' 
18", longitude 121° 19' 26", very near Sutter's Fort, to 
which Fremont proceeded. "Captain Sutter," he says, 

received me with the same friendly hospitality which had been 
so dcliji^htful to us the year before. I found that our previous 
visit had created some excitement amonji; the Mexican authori- 
ties. But to their inquiries he had explained that I had been 
engaged in a geographical survey of the interior, and had been 
driven to force my way through the snow of the mountains simj)ly 
to obtain a refuge and food where I knew it could be had at his 
place, which was by common report known to me.' 

"Nearly everybody who came to California," says John 
Bidwell, 

made it a point to reach Sutter's Fort. Sutter was one of the 
most liberal and hospitable of men. Everybody was welcome — 
one man or a hundred, it was all the same. He had peculiar 
traits: his necessities compelled him to take all he could buy, 
and he paid all he could pay; but he failed to keep up with 
his payments. And so he soon found himself immensely — al- 
most hopelessly — involved in debt. His debt to the Russians 
amounted at first to something near one hundred thousand 
dollars. Interest increased apace. He had agreed to pay in 
wheat, but his crops failed. . . . Every year found him worse 
and worse off; but it was partly his own fault. He employed 
men — not because he always needed and could profitably employ 
them, but because in the kindness of his heart it simply became 
a habit to employ everybody who wanted employment. As long 
as he had anything he trusted anyone with everything he wanted 
— responsible or otherwise, acquaintances and strangers alike.' 

' Memoirs, p. 441. 

' " Life in California before the Gold Discovery," by John Bidwell, Century 
Magazine, vol. xix., N.S., p. 169. 



302 Fremont and '49 

This unique establishment was, more or less, under mili- 
tary discipline. Cannon pointed in every direction through 
the walls and bastions, and the Indian soldiers, drilled by a 
white officer, marched to fife and drum, while regular bells 
called the large number of men to and from their occupa- 
tions.'' Probably never before or since, within the limits 
of what is now the United States, was there ever such an 
establishment, or for that matter, such a generous, helpful, 
big-minded "Governor." But to-day, his chief reward for 
all this is sneers and gibes of writers who never knew an hour 
of real frontier life. 

Captain Fremont states that Captain Sutter received 
him with friendly hospitality. John Bid well, who was in 
charge of the Sutter Fort at the time, Sutter being absent 
at the Bay of San Francisco, has this to say: 

Fremont camped on the American River about three miles above 
the fort. The first notice of his return to California was his 
sudden appearance, with Kit Carson, at the fort. He at once 
made known to me his wants, namely, sixteen mules, six pack- 
saddles, some flour and other provisions, and the use of a black- 
smith's shop to shoe the mules, to enable him to go in haste to 
meet the others of his party. I told him precisely what could, 
and could not be furnished — that we had no mules, but could 
let him have horses, and could make the pack-saddles; that 
he could have the use of a blacksmith's shop, but we were en- 
tirely out of coal. He became reticent, and, saying something 
in a low tone to Kit Carson, rose and left without saying good- 
day, and returned to his camp. As they mounted their horses to 
leave, Fremont was heard to say that I was unwilling to accommo- 
date him, which greatly pained me ; for, of course, we were always 
glad of the arrival of Americans, and especially of one in authority. 
Besides, I knew that Captain Sutter would do anything in his 
power for Fremont. So I took with me Dr. Gildea, a recent ar- 
rival from St. Louis, across the plains, and hastened to Fremont's 
camp and told him what had been reported to me. He stated in 

' Bidwell says that when he arrived at Sutter's Fort, Jan. i, 1842, there 
was no fort as yet, only a station. 



An Indian Fight 303 

a very formal manner, that he was the ofTiccr of one government 
and Sutter the officer of another ; that difficulties existed between 
those governments; and, hence, his inference that I, represent- 
ing Sutter, was not willing to accommodate him. He reminded 
me that on his first arrival here, in 1844, Sutter had sent out 
and in half an hour had brought him all the mules he wanted.' 

On the other occasion, it seems Lassen had arrived with a 
hundred mules, and Sutter had bought from him what Fre- 
mont needed. When Sutter returned, a few days later, he 
was, of course, not able to furnish any more than his agent 
Bidwell. Thereupon, Fremont went down "to the bay " to 
get the desired supplies but was not successful. At this time, 
according to Bidwell, he paid a visit to the American Consul 
at Monterey, Thomas O. Larkin. '^ Retiirning to New Hel- 
vetia, he started on the 14th of December (according to the 
Memoirs) and went up the San Joaquin Valley on very 
much the same course as last year, and on the 1 9th of Decem- 
ber was on the Mariposa River, or rather on its headwaters, 
and there he came upon many Indian trails freshly travelled 
by bands of horses. Numerous horse bones lying about 
indicated that the "Horse-thief Indians" were nearby, and 
four men, including two Delawares, were sent ahead as 
scouts. Presently firing was heard. Fremont hastened 
forward with the rest of his men and found the advance 
guard almost surrounded by not less than a hundred hostile 
Indians. A sharp encounter followed. Dick Owens shot 
one of the foremost Indians, and in the temporary halt, 
the Fremont party fell back to a point where four men had 
been left with the pack-train. The Indians followed closely 
with threats, declaring the next day would see the whites 
annihilated. Many of them spoke Spanish well, having 
been Mission Indians. 

'"Frdmont in the Conquest of California," by John Bidwell, Century 
Magazine, vol. xix., N.S., p. 518. 

^ Bidwell seems to be in error as to the time of this visit. Frdmont says 
it was after his trip south in search of his other division. 



304 Fremont and '49 

That night the sixteen men of the Fremont party were 
vigilant but nothing more than a shout now and then indi- 
cated the presence of Indians in the neighbourhood. One of 
the Delawares fired at a moving object, but there was no 
other shot, and in the morning a good retreat was made 
down to the open country. Here an Indian riding towards 
the plain was intercepted and killed by Maxwell, the Indian 
being armed only with a bow and arrows. Fremont reached 
the spot too late to save the Indian's life. Maxwell thought 
this Indian was intending to incite against them another 
band, but this was pure surmise and the killing of the man 
seems to have been without reason. The original trouble 
with the band of Chauchiles, as Fremont called them, 
probably arose from their supposing the four advance men 
were intending to attack them for horse stealing. Perhaps 
a little explanation would have avoided the conflict. 

This was the territory afterwards comprised in Fremont's 
famous " Mariposa Grant " and he mentions this difficulty as a 
forerunner of his futiire unfortunate contests over ownership 
of the claim, but these contests were largely the result of 
his own action, and of the way in which the lines of the 
grant were drawn. 

Through a misunderstanding the other party under 
Talbot was not discovered anywhere on the Lake Fork 
(King's River) and after a good deal of beating about amidst 
snow-storms and roaring chasms, the party returned to 
Sutter's Fort, with the belief that the other division had 
travelled more slowly than had been counted on ; but they, 
in fact, were waiting elsewhere. From Sutter, who was a 
Mexican official, passports were obtained to Monterey, and 
on the way Fremont stopped at Yerba Buena (San Francisco) 
and met the American Consul, Leidesdorff, and Captain 
Hinckley, the former accompanying him to Monterey. 

In the autumn of the year before, 1844, Jose Castro and 
the ex- Governor Alvarado incited an insurrection against 
Governor Micheltorena. On November 226. Micheltorena 



An Insurrection 305 

proceeded from his quarters at Monterey against these 
rebels and met them near San Jose. He had 150, and the 
opposing leaders 200 men. One of the causes of the trouble 
was the lawlessness of the "soldiers" of Michcltorcna, and 
another, alleged, was his friendliness towards Americans. 
John Bidwell declares the latter charge without foundation — 
that Michcltorcna was merely impartial. "He was a fair- 
minded man," says Bidwell, 

and an intelligent and good governor, and wished to develop 
the country. . . . The real cause . . . was that the native 
chiefs had become hungry to get hold of the revenues. The 
feeling against Americans was easily aroused and became their 
main excuse. The English and French influence, so far as felt, 
evidently leaned towards the side of the Californians. It was 
not open but it was felt, and not a few expressed the hope that 
England, or France, would some day seize and hold California. 
. . . In October [1844] Sutter went from Sacramento [New 
Helvetia] to Monterey, the capital, to see the governor, Michel- 
torena. I went with him. On our way thither, we heard at 
San Jose the first mutterings of the insurrection. ^ 

They told the Governor of the prospects and immediately 
Sutter hastened back to his fort, by water, while Bidwell 
started to return by land. The insurgents stole all the 
government horses, leaving Michcltorcna and his troops on 
foot. After a parley at San Jose, a truce was patched up, 
but, as this insurrection was merely a part of the general 
unrest and dissatisfaction existing throughout the country, 
the truce was merely temporary. Monterey and Los Angeles 
were both endeavouring to be the capital, and in every direc- 
tion there was antagonism, and universal dissatisfaction with 
conditions. Bidwell, returning to Monterey, met Michcl- 
torcna. The Governor desired him "to beg the Ameri- 
cans to be loyal to Mexico; to assure them that he was their 

'"Life in California before the Gold Discovery," by John Bidwell, 
Century Magazine, vol. xix., N.S., pp. 178, 179. 



3o6 



Fremont and '49 



friend, and in due time would give them all the lands to 
which they were entitled." Shortly after Bidwell fell in 
with the two insurgent leaders, who also "protested their 
friendship" for the Americans and sent a request to Sutter 
to support them. " On my arrival at the fort, " says Bidwell, 
"the situation was fully considered, and all, with a single ex- 
ception, concluded to support Micheltorena." A man named 
Gutierrez was sent twice with loyal despatches to Michel- 
torena. The second time he was intercepted by the insur- 
gents and unceremoniously hanged to a tree. Bidwell had 
been particularly interested in this man because Gutierrez 
had reported to him finding gold on Bear River in the spring 
of 1844, and they had planned to investigate and develop 
this find. Now the matter was ended, and the great gold 
find for a time was postponed. 

In January of this year, 1845, Sutter, with one hundred 
armed Indians and a like number of riflemen under John 
Gantt, and the former revolutionist, Isaac Graham, joined 
Micheltorena, whose agreement with the opposition mean- 
while had been cancelled. But Micheltorena was soon de- 
posed by the California Assembly at Los Angeles, and Pio 
Pico made Governor in his stead. Jose Castro was made 
Commandante General, installed at Monterey. And this 
was the situation when Fremont made his visit to Monterey, 
in January, 1846. 







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CHAPTER XIV 

THE RECONNAISSANCE TO THE NORTH 

A Visit to the Commandante General — The Fremont Parties again United — 
Permission to Stay Revoked — Fremont's Defiance — At Lassen's Ranch — 
Naming Lake Rhett — A Messenger from Washington — New Instruc- 
tions — A Fatal Night — Basil's Last Sleep, and Crane's and Denny's — 
Vengeance and Vengeance — Back to the Sacramento Valley — End of 
Exploration Work. 

THE troubled condition of California affairs, the division 
between the north and south portions of the country, 
the imminence of something going to happen in the 
way of separation of California from Mexico, the certainty 
of a war beginning at any moment between Mexico and the 
United States, all placed Captain Fremont in a position 
requiring caution and yet of being ready to act rapidly in 
case of necessity. His attitude towards Bidwell, when he 
supposed that gentleman (as Sutter's agent) was withholding 
supplies from him, showed that he did not trust Mexican 
officials in the slightest degree, and on their part he was 
regarded with suspicion. 

At Monterey where he arrived in company with Leides- 
dorff on January 26, 1846, he called at once on the American 
Consul, Larkin^ and with him proceeded to make official 
visits. Don Pio Pico, the governor, was absent, but he 
met the prefect, the alcalde, ex-Governor Alvarado, and the 
Commanding General, Don Jose Castro. He informed these 

' Thomas O. Larkin was United States Consul from April 2, 1844. He 
was made "confidential agent" in 1845. He had amassed a fortune in the 
country and Bryant remarks: "He will probably be the first American mil- 
lionaire of California." He was a Bostonian. 

307 



3o8 Fremont and '49 

officers that he was engaged in a topographical survey in the 
interests of science and commerce, and that the men com- 
posing his party were citizens not soldiers, but he did not 
say anything about his having drilled them in exact marks- 
manship all the way out. He asked permission to operate 
in the country. According to Bidwell the special permission 
asked was to winter in the San Joaquin Valley, away from 
the settlements, and to extend explorations in the spring 
as far south as the Colorado River. Castro gave him the 
necessary permission. 

Meanwhile Carson and Owens had been sent to find 
Talbot and they finally met Walker and were taken to 
Talbot's camp on the Cosumne River. Through the mis- 
understanding, Talbot had waited on Kern River instead 
of on the Rio Reyes, now King's River. Walker made the 
mistake as he did not know about the Reyes River. Kern 
says: "The mistake Walker made in the name of the river 
on which we had camped to wait for Captain Fremont was 
the cause of his failure to make a junction with us, as 
had been pre-arranged at Walker's Lake." Finding that 
Fremont did not arrive Talbot came on down into the San 
Joaquin Valley and sent Walker to search for the Captain 
with the result that he met Carson and Owens as stated. 
The route pursued by the main body had been an easy one 
and all were in good health. They had come over the real 
Walker Pass at the head of what Fremont now named Kern 
River; and a fine lake which they had passed on the east 
side of the Sierra he named after Dick Owens. 

The whole part}'' of sixty- two good marksmen, being again 
united, Fremont chose a vacant ranch, belonging to a Mr. 
Fisher, in latitude 2)7° 13' 32", longitude 121° 39' 08'', as a 
camp for refitting and recuperation. It was only a few 
miles from Mt. Hamilton where the Lick Observatory was 
afterwards established, and not very far from the town of 
San Jose. At this camp they received many visits from 
native Californians and everything was extremely friendly. 




08 i- 






H 



■.rnKjUiKk 



Trouble Ahead 309 

Here they rested till February 22 d, when the expedition 
started on its way. Instead of taking a south or south-east 
direction, however, as Castro expected him to do, Fremont 
travelled west and south-west into the settled country, and 
on February 25th "descended to the coast near the north- 
western point of Monterey Bay," coming into a cold south- 
east storm. After several days of this the weather became 
fine again and the march was resumed, March i, 1846, 
from a camp in latitude 36° 58' 43", longitude 121° 48' 51" 
and on the 3d they camped at Hartnell's Ranch, twenty- 
five miles from the town of Monterey, then possessing a 
population of about five hundred people. 

"The town of Monterey," says Lieutenant Wise, U. S. N., 
who visited it about this time, "if it could be dignified by the 
title, we found a mean, irregular collection of mud huts, 
and long low, adobie dwellings, strewn promiscuously over 
an easy slope, down to the water's edge."' 

For some time there had been considerable agitation 
of the idea of expelling all the Americans from the country. 
As foreigners they were disqualified from holding land, and 
it would be necessary for them to become Mexican citizens 
or abandon their property. The year before in July the 
Governor had been instructed to prevent the coming of 
American settlers and much alarm began to develop among 
those who had already permanently fixed themselves in the 
country, and who had bought and paid for land under the 
impression that it was legal. Most of these settlers were 
north of San Francisco Bay, and they began seriously to 
consider the feasibility of organising to oppose the Mexican 
government and its decrees, which appeared to them entirely 
unjust.' In fact the spirit of opposition and independence 
became very strong; it was no new spirit in California. A 
renewed order to Castro, and his alarm at the near presence 
of Captain Fremont and his powerful troop of hardy sharp- 

^Los Gringos, by Lieutenant Wise, U. S. N., New York, 1849, p. 47. 



310 Fremont and '49 

shooters, caused the Commandante General to proceed to 

immediate action.^ 

The afternoon of March 5, 1846, therefore, was marked 
by the "sudden appearance" at the Fremont camp, of a 
cavalry officer, of the Mexican forces, and two men. This 
was Lieutenant Chavez with "peremptory letters from the 
general and prefect, ordering" Fremont out of the country. 
A threat of force was added if he did not obey immediately. 
Fremont was angered by the order and the threat, though 
he had no right to be. He was an intruder on Californian 
soil with a thoroughly equipped military company, at least 
three times larger and more powerful than was called for 
by his alleged occupation, each man bearing from three to 
six guns, rifles, and pistols. ^ No permission had been granted 
by the Mexican government for this expedition, or any other 
expedition of Americans, to survey or operate in any way 
in Alta California or New Mexico. In fact any such intru- 
sion had been repeatedly prohibited, and Mexico had been 
repeatedly ignored. Captain Fremont, therefore, was a 
foreign officer with no rights in this country, having come 
without any "by your leave," till he arrived here and ob- 
tained the local permission referred to, which, as we see, 
was contrary to orders that arrived about the same time, 
and the permission was consequently revoked. 

The proper thing, under the circumstances, would have 
been for him to comply with the order, as gracefully as pos- 
sible, if he were bent merely on carrying on topographical 
work; but instead of this submissive course, he told the 
emissary to inform General Castro that he "peremptorily 

' "After granting me permission to refresh my party . . . General 
Castro had received by the Hannah from the home government positive orders 
to drive me from the territory." Memoirs, p. 461. Larkin in a letter dated 
March 9, 1846, says: " General Castro says he has just received by the ' Hannah ' 
direct and specific orders not to allow Captain Fremont to enter California." 
— Century Magazine, vol. xix., N. S., p. 922. Memoirs, p. 462, gives a slightly 
different version. 

' Larkin letter, p. 464, Memoirs. 



Fremont Defiant 311 

refused" to act on the order "insulting to his government 
and himself." There seems to be no excuse for this high- 
handed opposition. But Fremont had a very strong force, 
as forces went in California at that moment, and he knew 
that Castro would not be likely to meet it. American 
marksmanship was well resjjected. His men were also 
angered by the order, as naturally they would be, and they 
stood by their chief. 

Instead of leaving the country, Fremont moved a few 
miles to Gavilan Peak where he defiantly placed his camp in 
a commanding position on a small wooded flat at the summit. 
Here there were wood, water, and grass and a view of the 
surrounding country, by which the movements of the Mexi- 
cans could be observed. A rough, strong fort of logs was 
speedily constructed. A tall sapling was cut and stripped 
of its branches to make a flag pole, and from its top the 
American flag was unfurled amid the cheers of the men. 
They could see with glasses the Mission of San Juan where 
General Castro was gathering his troops. On the afternoon 
of the second day, a body of cavalry was discovered ap- 
proaching, and with about forty men Fremont stole down the 
slope to where he could ambush them. Fortimately they 
retired before the place was reached. 

Toward evening of the third day the pole bearing the 
flag fell down. During this time the Captain had had time 
to ponder on the situation and perceived the error of his 
course. "Thinking I had remained as long as the occasion 
required, I took advantage of the accident to say to the men 
that this was an indication for us to move camp, and accord- 
ingly I gave the order to prepare to move."' 

Castro reported that he had driven out the American 
bandoleros, or highwaymen ; that they were cowards and had 
run. Larkin states that Fremont "received verbal applica- 
tions from English and Americans to join his party and 
could have mustered as many men as the natives."^ On 

' Memoirs, p. 460. ^ ^Ib., 468. 



312 Fremont and '49 

the morning of March nth, after the Fremont party had 
gone, an Englishman named Gilroy, arrived at the camp 
from Castro, to offer an arrangement of the trouble, which 
Fremont later ascertained was a proposition to join forces 
against the Governor Don Pio Pico!^ This is an example of 
the complete lack of cohesion at the time in Californian 
affairs. The country was without organisation, without 
central power, and almost without any real connection with 
Mexico. 

Proceeding northward by short stages the evening of 
March 14th found the expedition camped on the Tuolumne 
River, in latitude 37° 25' 53" and longitude 120° 35' 55". 
Castro had not ordered Fremont to go north but simply to 
leave the country, and probably would have been quite as 
well satisfied if the Captain had carried out his original plan 
of exploring the lower Colorado. He certainly would have 
been more out of the way there than in the north. But 
Fremont evidently did not care to get too far from the 
Bay of San Francisco, where any day now might bring news 
of the prospective war. Although travelling slowly, they 
were on Feather River, by the 26th of April, at the mouth 
of the Yuba where there was a large village of Indians, after 
whom, Fremont says, the river was named. The Indians 
helped them across with canoes and small rafts. These 
Indians were the Yupu, or Yuba, of the Maidu stock, and 
the village stood about where Yuba City is now located. 
The junction of Feather River and the Yuba, Fremont gives 

' Castro and Pio Pico, the former presenting the military side, the latter 
the civil, of the government of California, were at swords' points over the 
definition of their respective authorities and of the proper line of action. 
Moreover, Castro stood for the north and Pio Pico for the south. June 8, 
1846, Castro proclaimed martial law and on June i6th, Pio Pico with a mili- 
tary force started for Monterey to compel Castro's submission to his authority. 
Action by the Americans at this moment changed the whole complexion of 
affairs. The reader will perceive that the flimsy government of California 
was not in a position to make much of a stand against the Americans, especially 
with a large element of the population, native and foreign, openly expressing 
their pro-Americanism. 



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Shasta 313 

as latitude 39° of 45", longitude 121° 30' 21". A German 
named Cordua had a fine cattle ranch not far up the Yuba 
from this place ; and farther up Feather River the blacksmith 
Neal, who had remained behind at Sutter's Fort from the 
other Fremont expedition, was encountered occupying a 
good ranch with plenty of stock. Continuing they halted 
on March 29th on Pine Creek in latitude 39° 52' 58", longitude 
121° 52' 58". The next day another fine ranch was met with 
on Deer Creek. This one belonged to a man whose name, 
in "Lassen" Peak (10,577 feet), is on the map of California, 
Lassen being another German. His ranch was in latitude 
39° 56' 04", longitude 121 ° 56' 44'' at an elevation of 500 feet 
above the sea. ' Resting six days here, not being in much of 
a hurry, apparently, to get out of California, Fremont went 
leisurely on, up the valley of the Sacramento and on April 
6th he saw the snowy heights of "Shastl" (Shasta) on the 
northern horizon. ^ Fremont was now following practically 
the route of Jedediah Smith of 1^2^-2%, and continued on 
it to about the mouth of Pitt River. 

Heading for Shasta, with huge mountain ranges rising 
on both sides of the valley into the snows, Fremont named 
one peak of the Coast Range, Mount Linn (8604 feet), in 
honour of that departed Senator. At a stream called Red 
Bank Creek, the lower valley of the Sacramento was left 
behind, and the expedition continued across a more broken 
country up the valley of Pitt River. Fremont makes a 
special note of seeing again the manzanita which before had 
struck him as a singular plant. It is one of those strikingly 
individual shrubs, or bushes, sometimes growing at least ten 
feet high, which challenge immediate attention. Its reddish, 
smooth bark, its waxy leaves and picturesquely rugged 

'In Fremont's text the latitude is given 39° 57' 04", longitude 120° 56' 
44" but in the final table the figures arc as stated above. 

' The name Shasta is from the Shasta Indians (Shastan family) whose 
range was in northern California to south-western Oregon. There are two 
divisions, the Shasta and the Palaihnihan, formerly considered separate stocks. 
The altitude of the mountain is 14,380 feet. 



314 Fremont and '49 

appearance, give it a divStinction that even the most casual 
traveller must notice. In some parts of the South-west the 
Indians use its leaves for smoking, like tobacco. 

To the right, or east, of Shasta was what Fremont 
called the upper Sacramento Valley (valley of Pitt River) , a 
river which sometimes, in very wet seasons, receives water 
from Goose Lake, which lake is otherwise classed in the 
Great Basin drainage. Returning now to the southward 
the party arrived on April nth once more at Lassen's where 
the Captain took time to set up his heavy transit and ob- 
served the longitude with exactness, obtaining the figures 
given above. The day the expedition again left Lassen's 
comfortable ranch was an eventful one for California, 
though no one there knew it at the time. It was the 24th 
of April, 1846, the day on which the first clash of arms oc- 
curred between the Mexicans and the Americans in the Rio 
Grande region, when a party of American dragoons was 
destroyed by the Mexican forces. 

The annexation of Texas had carried with it, by agree- 
ment, that republic's unwarranted claim to the land as far 
as the Rio Grande, including the ancient Spanish city of 
Santa Fe, and other old towns, to which Texas had no more 
just claim than to the city of Chihuahua, or the City of 
Mexico, itself. The pitiable failure of the Texans to bring 
Santa Fe, and the contiguous country east of the Rio Grande, 
under the Texan flag has been related in a previous chapter. 
Now, however, the might of the United States was to be 
flung against a weak government to accomplish this same 
purpose. Mexican territory extending north across the 
American path of Empire was a barrier to our "manifest 
destiny" not to be tolerated, and this is the whole story. 
General Taylor was ordered to advance and as early as 
August, 1845, he took up a position on the west bank of the 
Nueces, in what was Mexican territory. 

General Taylor was ordered to proceed to the Rio 
Grande which he did, entrenching at Fort Brown, now 



A Broken Nose 315 

Brownsville, opposite Matamoras. President Polk pro- 
claimed that Mexico had "invaded our territory and shed 
American blood on American soil," and war was forthwith 
declared! Few countries can surpass this action in audacity. 
It was called Mexico's making war on the United States! 

Meanwhile, without knowing positively of these occur- 
rences, but naturally fully expecting them from his intimate 
knowledge of the inside plans of the controlling men at 
Washington, and from the situation when he left Washington, 
Captain Fremont proceeded slowly northward, evidently 
reluctant to move far from the Bay of San Francisco. Fre- 
mont's intention, as now expressed, was to connect with the 
line of his 1843 journey in the Klamath region. He had 
forgotten, at least temporarily, about his previous plan to 
explore the lower Colorado. On the 26th of April the party 
passed up Brant's fork of the Sacramento and camped 
in latitude 40° 38' 58". The Captain always notices the 
flowers and here again he enthuses over the California 
poppy, but he soon had something else to occupy his atten- 
tion. He had to perform a surgical operation on the nose 
of Charley, one of his Delawares, whose horse, slipping in a 
skirmish with a bear, brought the hammer of the Indian's 
rifle into such violent contact with his nose that the latter 
was broken. Fremont succeeded in adjusting it and it 
healed satisfactorily. 

Passing on into the valley of the "Upper Sacramento" 
(Pitt River), on the 29th, he camped above Fall River in 
latitude 40° 58' 43", longitude 121° 07' 59". The next day 
the course of Pitt River was followed up to another camp at 
the head of a valley so round that Fremont gave it the name 
of Round Valley (now Big Valley). This camp was in 
latitude 41° 17' 17". On the first day of May, 1846, the 
expedition arrived at a large lake, camping at its south- 
eastern end, in latitude 4i°48'49", longitude 121° 15' 24". 
The lake which now bears the name of Rhett was named 
at this time by Fremont "in friendly remembrance of Mr. 



3i6 Fremont and '49 

Barnwell Rhett, of South CaroHna, who is connected with 
one of the events of my life which brought with it an abiding 
satisfaction." What this event was is not disclosed. 

When they were about to leave Round Valley, Archam- 
beau went off to hunt and that was the last seen of him for 
two days which worried the leader a great deal. He was 
greatly relieved when Archambeau returned. The man had 
been pursuing game and became worn out. His return 
"spread pleasure through the camp, where he was a general 
favourite. ... I loved to have my camp cheerful and took 
care always for the health and comfort which carry good 
temper with them." This was the secret of Fremont's 
undoubted success with his men. If he ever had any dis-. 
agreements none have ever come down to us, either by 
record or by report. On the contrary his men, no matter 
how hard the conditions, appear always to have been loyal, 
cheerful, and devoted. 

The men were provided with tents at the start but they 
grew tired of them and begged permission to leave them 
behind, and now they took the weather as it came. The 
wait to find Archambeau refreshed the men and horses, and 
the next stretch was a long one north to a stream, flowing 
into Rhett Lake, which Fremont named McCrady after a 
boyhood friend who came into his mind. On the 6th of 
May they reached the (lower?) Klamath Lake at its outlet, 
and now met with the Indians of the neighbourhood again. 
On his former trip, Fremont made the mistake of thinking 
the Klamath Meadows were the lake, and also that the head 
of the Sacramento was here. In a letter written to Benton, 
later, he touches lightly on the error concerning the lake but 
does not mention the other. The Indians told of another 
river coming in at the upper end of the lake whence there was 
a village. Still going north they camped on the night of 
May 6, on what Fremont later named Denny's Branch, in 
latitude 42° if ^6", longitude, 121° 52' 45". In the morning 
the camp was visited by a number of Indians who had ap- 



Messengers 317 

peared suddenly, from no one could tell where. They said 
they were hungry and the Captain directed that they should 
be fed and given presents, which was done. 

Two more rough days' travel between the lake and the 
foot of the mountain and over ridges brought them to a 
point within some twenty miles of their former camp on 
Klamath Meadows, where Fremont had turned eastward on 
the second expedition. While the Captain, this evening of 
May 8th, was standing alone by the camp-fire, thinking over 
plans and possibilities, his quick ear suddenly was roused 
by the sound of horses' hoofs approaching, and presently two 
horsemen emerged from the darkness into the firelight. It 
was Neal, the former blacksmith, and a companion named 
Sigler, also known to Fremont. They were messengers 
from a United States officer, Lieutenant Gillespie, who 
was following with despatches from the government. The 
Indians had tried to cut off Neal and Sigler but they had 
outstripped them. Neal was of the opinion that Gillespie 
with only three men, could not get through. Fremont, 
therefore, immediately selected ten of his best men, Carson, 
Owens, Godey, Basil Lajeunesse, four Delawares, Denny, and 
Basil's brother, and at dawn he was on the backward 
trail to meet the Lieutenant. After making about forty- 
five miles they arrived in the afternoon of May 9th at Denny's 
Branch where there was a natural meadow enclosed by 
forest where they had before camped, and here it was decided 
to stop and wait for Gillespie's arrival as he was sure to come 
this way. Just as the sun was setting he was observed with 
his three men, approaching. Fremont had now been eleven 
months without news from home and he was delighted to see 
someone from that part of the world. 

Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie of the Marine Corps, 
U. S. N., was sent from Washington in November, 1845, 
to reach California by the shortest route through Mexico 
to Mazatlan with despatches for the American Consul at 
Monterey, and with instructions to find Fremont where- 



3i8 Fremont and '49 

ever he was.^ This incident, and the papers or other infor- 
mation which Gillespie bore, have been the cause of a great 
amount of discussion, and even controversy, as to just what 
they exactly were, and how much authority for action they 
conveyed directly or indirectly to Fremont. The first 
battles of the Mexican War were fought on the 8th and the 
9th of May, the very days when Neal and Gillespie reached 
Fremont. They did not then know these facts, but from 
Gillespie's documents and personal information it would 
probably not have been difficult to fix, approximately, the 
dates when such collisions were likely to occur, estimating 
the positions and intentions of the American forces months 
back, and of the thousands of troops which Mexico had long 
before set in motion toward the Rio Grande, to meet the 
invasion. Some writers appear to assume that the Mexican 
War, by the battles mentioned, broke out of a clear, peaceful 
sky, whereas the currents were surging towards this result 
for a very long period, and it was a dull person who could 
not have predicted with certainty the actual denouement. 
Fremont was not dull. 

Lieutenant Gillespie brought a letter of introduction from 
the Secretary of State, Mr. Buchanan, and letters and papers 
from Senator Benton and family. The letter from the Secretary 
of State was directed to me in my private capacity, and, though 
seeming nothing beyond an introduction, it accredited the bearer, 
and in connection with circumstances and place of deliver}^ it 
indicated a purpose in sending it. From the letter I learned 
nothing, but it was intelligibly explained to me by my previous 
knowledge, by the letter from Senator Benton, and by communi- 
cations from Lieutenant Gillespie. This officer informed me 
also that he was directed by the Secretary of State to acquaint 

^ After Gillespie left Sutter's Fort, Captain Sutter wrote to Castro 
warning him against Gillespie as an agent of the United States and recom- 
mending the establishment of a "respectable garrison" at his fort, before the 
arrival of more American emigrants. He also expected the Mexican govern- 
ment to buy out his establishment. See H. H. Bancroft, Pacific States, vol. 
xxii., p. 65. 



Time to Act 319 

me with hi^ instructions to the consular agent, Mr. Larkin, 
which were to ascertain the disposition of the California people 
and conciliate their feelings in favour of the United States. This 
idea was no longer practicable as actual war was inevitable and 
immediate ; moreover it was in conflict with our own instructions. 
We dropped this idea from our minds, but falling on others 
less informed, it came dangerously near losing us California. The 
letter of Senator Benton, while apparently only one of friendship 
and family details, was a trumpet giving no uncertain note. 
Read by the light of many conversations and discussions with 
himself and other governing men in Washington, it clearly made 
me know that I was required by the Government to find out any 
foreign schemes in relation to California, and to counteract 
them so far as was in my power. His letters made me know 
distinctly that at last the time had come when England must 
not get a foothold ; that we must he first. I was to act discreetly 
but positively.' 

The officer who had had charge of the despatches from the 
Secretary of the Navy to Commodore Sloat, and who had pur- 
posely been made acquainted with their import, accordingly made 
his way to Captain Fremont, who thus became acquainted with 
the state of affairs and the intentions of the Government. Being 
absolved from any duty as an explorer, Captain Fremont was 
left to his duty as an of^cer in the service of the United States, 
with the further authoritative knowledge that the Government 
intended to take possession of California.^ 

Naturally the night of Gillespie's arrival was full of 
interesting talk around the three camp-fires, and it was eleven 
o'clock before the men were asleep.^ Alone, Captain Fre- 
mont remained sitting by his fire, re-reading his letters and 

' The Conquest of California, Jessie Benton Frdmont, from the notes of 
General Fremont, Century Magazine, vol. xix., N. S., p. 922. Mrs. Fremont 
also calls attention to the fact that instructions to a consul from the Secretary 
of State could not affect other and different instructions from the Secretary 
of War and of the Navy. Commodore Sloat was deemed too slow in his 
action a little later. 

» Letter of George Bancroft, September 3d, 1886, ih., 924. 

s A large party always has several camp-fires, of course. 



320 Fremont and '49 

pondering on the possibilities which the news had opened 
up to him. The camp was absolutely still — not even the 
movement of the customary guard broke the quiet, for in 
their sense of security, in a region where the Indians before 
had been friendly, Fremont had omitted the guard, and for 
only the second time, the other occasion ha\ang been on the 
island in Salt Lake. 

Suddenly there was one of those commotions among the 
horses which indicate the intrusion of some foreign element. 
They were by the shore of the lake, about a hundred yards 
away, and the Captain, not rousing his men, took a revolver 
and went out to see what the trouble might be. The mules 
were especially alarmed. "A mule," he says, "is a good 
sentinel, and when he quits eating and stands with his ears 
stuck straight out taking notice it is best to see what is the 
matter. The mules knew that Indians were around, but 
nothing seemed stirring, . . . and I returned to the fire and 
my letters."^ 

He should have investigated more thoroughly, but his 
mind was so engrossed with determining the best line of 
action to pursue that he soon forgot the disturbance, and, 
at length deciding to return at once to the Sacramento Valley, 
he turned in. 

He was soon aroused by the sound of Carson's voice 
calling to Basil, "What 's the matter over there?" followed 
instantly by the cry from both Owens and Carson, "In- 
dians!" The Delawares were immediately on the defensive, 
seeking cover, engaging with their rifles the onslaught of a 
band of Klamaths, in the dim firelight. Fremont and the 
others were with them in a moment. The crack of rifles, 
the twang and whizz of bow-and-arrow filled the air. The 
Delaware Crane went down with five arrows through him, 

' Mules I always found to be as good as watch-dogs to indicate the ap- 
proach of Indians ; friendly or unfriendly it was all the same to the mules. They 
had a violent objection to any kind of Indian, even to our guides whom they 
saw daily, when we had any. Mules pointed their ears even when there was 
apparently no sign or prospect of Indians and they never failed. 



By Axe and Arrow 321 

and a rifle ball dropped the Klamath chief at the same instant. 
Checked by this loss of their leader the foe fell back into the 
darkness, pouring in a rain of arrows, but not venturing 
again into the open. Blankets were hung on branches to 
break the force of the arrows. The horses had been quickly- 
driven into camp by Owens and were safe there. Arrows 
and bullets flew for a time at the slightest move, and the 
Fremont men lay with their guns ready throughout the rest 
of that fatal night. 

Daylight revealed sad losses. The Captain's favourite, 
Basil Lajeunesse, had been instantly killed, while asleep, by 
a blow on the head from an axe, and it was this which had 
caught the quick ear of Carson, and saved the annihilation 
of the party. The half-breed Denny was shot with arrows, 
and the Delaware Crane was dead where he fell. The 
attacking party had numbered fifteen or twenty. The chief 
was recognised as the man who had given Gillespie a salmon 
at the lake outlet. His quiver contained forty beautifully 
made arrows, the most efficient weapon, according to Carson, 
for a night attack. These arrows \/ere iron-headed and 
for about six inches, were poisoned, as is frequently the case. 

Fremont now started to make his way back to his main 
party who had been ordered to pack up and come after him 
as soon as their breakfast was over. The dead were placed on 
mules and the cavalcade started. Soon the lake was seen to 
be full of canoes heading for a point where the trail passed 
close along the shore, hemmed in by high rocks, and to pre- 
pare for fight the party turned into the woods where the 
dead were buried amid some dense bushes of laurel, the 
graves being dug with hunting knives. The enemy, dis- 
concerted by this mysterious movement of the whites, 
failed in their plan of ambush and Fremont safely reached 
his main force without an encounter. The other Delawares 
were in a rage over the loss of their comrades and blackened 
their faces. The Captain sat among them to console them 
and approved a plan they formed to trap the Klamaths 



322 Fremont and '49 

who were lurking around. This plan was for the main body- 
to start, leaving the Delawares behind. The Klamaths, 
they said, would skulk into the camp, and the Delawares 
from ambush would have their chance to secure a few scalps 
to atone for those lost.'^ 

In the morning, May nth, the Delawares rode a short 
distance ahead, halted, and when the main party had passed, 
they left their horses hidden and crept back to the camp on 
foot. They got two scalps, and wounded several Klamaths ; 
the rest escaped. Moving on some three miles the party 
went into camp, built a strong corral for the animals, and 
put themselves on the defensive. The Captain did not 
neglect his observations and obtained for the latitude 42° 36' 
35'' and longitude 121° 58' 45".'' From here the northward 
course was continued along Upper Klamath Lake and on 
the 1 2 th of May the caravan began to approach the principal 
Klamath village of which they had earlier had information. 
Carson and Owens with ten men were sent forward to re- 
connoitre at the mouth of the river where the village was 
situated. They were discovered and they immediately 
opened fire. When Fremont arrived, the first thing he saw 
was a canoe driven by the current against a bank with a 
dead Klamath sitting in the stem still holding his paddle. 
Halting for nothing the Captain and his band plimged into 
the stream, about sixty yards wide, where a small rapid made 
it fordable, and rushed to the aid of Carson and the others 
who were being pressed by a large body of the enemy. Their 

' "The late emigrants across the mountains, and especially from Oregon, 
had commenced a war of extermination upon them [the Indians] shooting 
them down like wolves, men, women, and children, wherever they could find 
them. Some of the Indians were undoubtedly bad and needed punishment, 
but generally the whites were the aggressors; and as a matter of course the 
Indians retaliated whenever opportunities occurred." — Theodore T. Johnson in 
Sights in the Gold Region and Scenes by the Way, New York, 1849, p. 152. If 
we could have the Indian side of many a white man's story our sympathies 
might frequently be reversed. 

2 Text and latitude table differ 10" here. I follow the table 35" instead 
of 45". 



A Close Call 323 

arrows were no match for the sure rifles of the Americans, 
and they were now forced back into the woods with fourteen 
dead. The onslaught was so determined and sudden that 
they were obliged to leave their arrows where they had spread 
them fan-like behind the bushes to be ready for quick use. 
The village near by had been abandoned. The huts were 
set on fire by Fremont's men and were consumed together 
with quantities of fish drying on scaffolds. 

Leaving the scene of this devastation Fremont went on 
a mile or so and camped, throwing out scouts everywhere. 
Indians were reported after noon, and Fremont with Carson 
and several others rode out to investigate. They came 
suddenly on an Indian with arrow drawn to the head, for 
Carson's benefit, he being in advance. Carson's gun missed 
fire. Fremont shot hastily. The Indian did not fall so 
Fremont rode him down with his fine horse Sacramento, of 
which he was very proud. The arrow, therefore, flew wild, 
and at the same instant the Delaware, Sagundai, leaped from 
his mount and with a blow from his war club finished the 
Klamath. After this episode, the Indians having been suf- 
ficiently punished, Fremont rested in his lodge where Lieu- 
tenant Gillespie came in "full of admiration for my men and 
their fitness for the life they were leading." The camp was 
undisturbed that night. The Klamaths had found out the 
quality of the American rifles and the inadequacy of the bow 
in competition except at very close quarters. The fact that 
they had spread their arrows on the ground, behind bushes as 
breastworks, proves how little they knew about gunpowder. 

Fremont made his usual observations which placed this 
camp, on what he named Torrey River, after the great botan- 
ist, in latitude 42° 41 '30'^ longitude 121° 52' 08". This was 
May 12, 1846. It would be interesting to know whether the 
Indians of the destroyed village really had any hand in the 
night attack.* Carson had opened fire on it apparently 

' It does not seem certain that it was the Klamath tribe which made this 
attack. It might have been a band of the Pitt River (Palaihnihan) Indians, 



324 Fremont and '49 

without ascertaining its attitude towards the whites. This 
was the manner of the frontier; life for a life, scalp for a 
scalp. 

The party went on southward camping again on the lake, 
and for the last time in latitude 42° 21' 43" and longitude 
121° 41' 2:^" on what Fremont named Wetowah Creek, after 
one of the Dela wares. ^ Two days later as he was riding 
along a trail with Maxwell and Archambeau some digtance 
in advance, he came to a fresh Indian scalp they had stuck 
up on an arrow. This had belonged to a young Indian 
who had sent an arrow, at sight, well aimed to hit Maxwell, 
but that agile hunter having thrown himself on the instant 
from his horse, the Indian paid the penalty. 

Two or three days after this several of the men were 
suddenly attacked. One of the Indians was killed: the 
others escaped into the timber. A little later a strong party 
began an attack but were quickly silenced with the excep- 
tion of one, who, from behind a rock, kept up a dangerous 
fire of arrows, driving the whole Fremont force back out of 
range, till Carson crept around on his flank and shot him 
through the heart. Carson presented the bow and arrows 
to Lieutenant Gillespie. The trail had been leading into a 
rough canyon, but Fremont foiled the enemy's purpose by 
avoiding this defile so admirable for an ambush. 

After this there was no more trouble with Indians and 
the caravan travelled back to the Sacramento Valley, reach- 
ing Lassen's once more on the 24th of May, 1846. Here 
Fremont wrote a letter to Senator Benton, "a guarded letter, 
chiefly to call the attention of Mr. Buchanan to the Indians 
among whom I had been travelling, especially to the fact 
that they were unfriendly to us but friendly to the English, 
by whom they were supplied with arms from a Hudson Bay's 
post on the Umpqua conveniently near to the coast." Here 

who were much more warlike and troublesome, as they had seen more of the 
white men. 

'The table of latitudes gives 42°, 21', 23". 




Storage Basket, California Tribes 

Collection American Museum 



A New Prospect 



325 



is a charge that the hostility of these Indians was due to the 
influence of the H. B. Company, a charge that was often 
made during the power of that company in this region. ' The 
Klamaths had perhaps mistaken the Fremont party for a 
trapping company. The arrival at Lassen's practically 
ended the exploration programme of the Third Fremont 
Expedition. The Captain, in his letter to Benton, speaks of 
an intention of now proceeding "directly homewards by 
the Colorado," though he had before renounced that plan 
for the northern tour. If he actually had this intention 
circumstances directed his course otherwise, but it seems 
probable that the talk about exploring the lower Colorado 
was merely a ruse to kill time till news should come that 
General Taylor had provoked the Mexicans to action. Some 
stirring days were before him ; days full of perplexing condi- 
tions to tax his judgment and his courage. California was 
breaking from its moorings, and Americans were there to 
seize the helm. 

' Thos. J. Farnham, Travels in California and Oregon, p. 422, states that 
"Governor Castro had stirred up the Indians against him, particularly the 
Hamath tribe." Both the H. B. Co. and the Mexicans were behind the 
Klamath hostility if this is true. Both were capable of such action, as proved 
by their previous record. 





CHAPTER XV 

THE BEAR FLAG AFFAIR 

A Decree of Expulsion — Chrysopylse or the Golden Gate — Dispersing In- 
dians — Capturing Mexican Horses — The Bear Flag — Capture of Sonoma 
— Victory in the First Battle — Murder on Both Sides — A Waiting Game 
— The Mexican War — Tardiness of Commodore Sloat — The Flag Raised 
at Monterey — The Sonoma Battalion — A Rugged Band — Walpole's Im- 
pressions — Commodore Stockton to Command — Fremont and Gillespie 
Join his Forces. 

OWING to the movements of the United States troops, 
in 1845, toward the Rio Grande, and the counter 
move of the Mexican troops, with the intention 
of attack if the Americans crossed the Nueces, the Mexican 
government had apparently awakened to the importance 
of carrying out its decree of prohibition against Americans 
in CaHfornia who had not become Mexican citizens. To all 
such, lands could not be sold, and the fact that they already 
had bought and paid for lands made no difference. Consul 
Larkin was accordingly informed, April 30, 1846, by the 
Mexican sub-prefect to notify "such purchasers that the 
transactions were invalid and they themselves subject to 
be expelled whenever the government might find it con- 
venient."^ 

Naturally this decree created excitement and resentment 
among the numerous Americans who were permanently 
settled around the Bay of San Francisco and who before 
this had had several "scares," which drove them to Sutter's 
Fort for refuge and drilling to resist attack, the last only 

' From the Sawyer Documents, Bancroft Collection. Cited by Richman, 
California, etc., p. 308. 

326 



The Land Question 327 

the year before. Castro had ordered Fremont out of the 
country; when would he order all other Americans to leave? 
This was a momentous question. It is needless to say the 
Americans had no intention of abandoning on order their 
property and departing; it was not the American way. 
General Castro began to gather horses with the purpose of 
utilising them for his prospective military operations, and 
he obtained 170 from General Vallejo, in command of the 
northern frontier. It was necessary to take these animals 
from the Mission of San Rafael, where they were, to Castro's 
headquarters, then at the Mission of Santa Clara. An 
Indian coming in told the Americans of seeing a large party 
of armed men (they imagined this) advancing up the Sacra- 
mento, which the Americans believed must be a force de- 
stined to attack Captain Fremont. 

At the Mexican council of war held in Monterey by 
Castro on receipt of the renewed instructions from the home 
government to drive out Fremont and the other Americans, 
a manifesto was issued in which attention is directed to "the 
imminent risk of an invasion founded on the extravagant 
design of an American Captain of the United States Army, " ' 
and it proceeds to show that the Captain withdrew to the 
north merely to strengthen and increase his force. There 
were, besides the preamble to this document, five stated 
"articles," and the whole was signed by Vallejo, Prudon, 
Jose Castro, Alvarado, Carillo, and the prefect, Manuel 
Castro. A proclamation was issued instructing judges that 
they were not allowed to authorise sales of land to foreigners, 
and that such purchases would be null and void. 

There were two sets of instructions to American officers 
on the coast, one to Consul Larkin, from the Secretary 
of State, who communicated with this official at long inter- 
vals, and the other from the Navy Department to the officer 
in command of the Pacific station, Commodore Sloat. The 
State Department told Larkin to pacify the Cahfomians 

' Memoirs, p. 500. 



328 Fremont and '49 

and use every means in his power to peaceably acquire the 
country. He was in no way to ruffle the sensibilities of the 
natives. The navy instructions, on the other hand, or- 
dered Sloat on declaration of war with Mexico to raise 
the American flag and take possession, particularly of the 
port of San Francisco, and warned him to be expeditious 
about it while preserving friendly relations with the inhabi- 
tants. There were no War Department orders as yet for 
this region as there were no soldiers here, except Fremont, 
who was the representative of the army, with such instruc- 
tions as he had derived from his letters, from Lieutenant 
Gillespie's verbal communication, and his original general 
order to use his judgment. 

Whatever may be said of Captain Fremont's action at 
this period, it seems to me, nobody, can charge him with 
anything but patriotic motives. He was in a peculiar and 
difficult situation, far from headquarters and with no chance 
for speedy commimication. He knew that the Cabinet 
in Washington intended to acquire California; he knew, 
without doubt, exactly the orders that had been sent to 
Sloat, at intervals for a whole year, by George Bancroft, 
Secretary of the Navy ; and he knew from his experience in 
the country that the recent instructions received through 
Gillespie from the State Department by Larkin were out of 
date, and impossible of application under the circumstances. ^ 

The settlers informed Fremont that the Indians were 
taking to the mountains, which was an indication of what 
they expected, and a cotuier came from Sutter, warning the 
Captain that Castro had sent two men out among the 
Indians to rouse them against the settlers. Fremont there- 

' Josiah Royce in his California has given a very careful analysis of the 
various questions connected with Fremont's operations in the conquest of 
California, but as his pen is rather unfriendly it is well to discount, to some 
extent at any rate, his positiveness. For some reason he appears to have 
disliked Fremont and he seems to have permitted the dislike to colour his 
criticism. This may be said also of his contributions on the subject to the 
Atlantic Monthly and to the Century Magazine. 




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The Golden Gate 329 

upon kept a special watch on the Indians to anticipate any 
attack on the settlers. The camp was moved southward 
several stages, and on the 30th of May a halt was made at 
The Buttes of the Sacramento, "an isolated mountain ridge 
about six miles long" and 2690 feet, at its summit, above 
the sea. Neal accompanied the party, and so also did 
Samuel Hensley, one of the leading Americans. Among 
the new recruits, if they may be so called, was also a 
man named Ezekiel Merritt, "rugged, fearless, and sim- 
ple," whom Fremont speaks of as his "Field Lieutenant" 
among the settlers. Merritt was a very rough, uncouth 
man, but energetic and faithful. 

The camp was in the midst of a fine game country, the 
air was balmy, there were wood and water everywhere, and 
it was an ideal region, where every one was well fed and 
happy. The latitude of this paradise was 39° 14' 41", 
longitude, 121° 33' 36". 

It was at this period that Fremont named the entrance 
to the Bay of San Francisco, ChrysopylcB, or Golden Gate, 
from the "form of the entrance . . . and its advantages 
to commerce." The name was first put on his map accom- 
panying the Geographical Memoir, in June, 1848. Here 
also the Captain noted the correction of the coast line from 
his own and Captain Beechey's observations which later 
caused the difficulty with Captain Wilkes. 

The camp at The Buttes became the rendezvous of all 
the American settlers and information came in frequently 
as to conditions and tendencies. It was concluded from 
the movements of the Indians that they were preparing to 
carry out Castro's reported instructions to bum the settlers' 
grain in the fields — it was now very dry — and otherwise 
harass them. This may seem incredible to many readers 
but the history of Mexican and Spanish methods is ample 
proof of the probability of the report. Fremont resolved 
to deal the Indians a blow, and teach them to respect the 
rights of the settlers (which as yet they had in no way 



330 Fremont and '49 

infringed) . With a large number of his men he consequently 
moved out, early one morning, following up the right bank 
of the Sacramento to strike the various rancherias or villages 
which were strung along that stream. 

At the first one the scouts reported that the Indians, — 
"hostiles" Fremont calls them, — feathered, and with their 
faces painted black, were in the midst of their war cere- 
monies.^ The Fremont men therefore rode rapidly upon 
them and several Indians were killed in the "dispersion." 
On rode the white avengers, avenging in advance(\), crushing 
and dispersing one after the other of the villages, but with- 
out taking any more lives according to the record. "This 
was a rude, but necessary measure," says Fremont, "to 
prevent injury to the whites, " but I must confess that I am 
somewhat dubious as to the correctness of his view. How- 
ever, there may have been necessity for stringent action 
for Sutter says: "I left in company of Major Reading, and 
most all of the Men in my employ, for a Campaign with 
the Mukelumney, which has been engaged by Castro and 
his Officers to revolutionize all the Indians against me to 
kill all the foreigners, burn their houses, and Wheatfields, " 
etc. ^ Hensley and Neal were of the opinion that the Ameri- 
cans would have to leave the country, or fight for their 
homes, and, everything considered, the prospect certainly 
looked very much that way. 

Owing to the original clash between Fremont and Castro, 
Consul Larkin had asked the American Consul at Mazatlan 
for a warship as several were there, and the U. S. man-of- 
war Portsmouth, Commander Montgomery, had been sent 

^Once I was among the She wits (Pai Utes) when they were on the *' war 
path" against the Mormons, and I was greatly interested at their fantastic 
styles of face painting. Some had their faces divided into three colours, black, 
red, white, others had only one or two and each colour was spotted with other 
colour. With all this fierce painting nothing happened to the Mormons, 
however, not even to a Mormon who was with me. My guide, a near relative 
of theirs, said they would steal all I had, but they did n't steal anything. 

= Suiters' Diary, June 3d. 



Capturing the Horses 331 

to Monterey, arriving April 22d, and thence went to 
Yerba Buena, or San Francisco as it was later called. After 
a consultation in Fremont's camp at Lassen's, it was decided 
that Lieutenant Gillespie should proceed to San Francisco 
and secure from Montgomery, on Fremont's requisition as 
an officer of the army, some much-needed supplies. Gilles- 
pie accordingly left on May 28th. On June 3d the 
Portsmouth was at San Francisco, and the requisition was 
honoured. On the 8th of June, Captain Fremont moved 
from The Buttes and on the 12th re-occupied his old camp 
on the American River near Sutter's Fort. The following 
day Gillespie arrived at Sutter's Landing on his return with 
the supplies in the Portsmouth'' s launch. Fremont had 
previously received a cordial letter from Montgomery, and 
by Lieutenant Hunter, in charge of the launch, he now 
received another equally cordial. The ship's surgeon 
Duvall came, on his own suggestion, to arrange Fremont's 
medicine chest and render other assistance. Fremont him- 
self remained at Sutter's for several days. 

Merritt, and the other American settlers, meanwhile 
had decided to take definite action, and begin their own 
emancipation. They were the predominating element north 
of San Francisco Bay, they were all good shots, and they 
were not afraid of the Mexicans, whose physical bravery 
was held by them at a very low estimate. Twelve men 
(twenty-five says Semple) accordingly intercepted the officer. 
Lieutenant Arce, and his fourteen men, in charge of the 
cavalcade of horses on the way to Castro's headquarters, an 
easy matter as he must pass near Sutter's Fort, and at 
dawn on June 9th the Americans took the horses from 
him, except one for each to ride, and six belonging to an 
individual, and sent him and his men back to Castro with 
messages quite uncomplimentary.^ 

' Wm. A Richardson, the year before, wrote to Larkin, Dec. 19, 1845: " If 
the party goes over to the north to pass over horses, as they say, we shall be 



332 Fremont and '49 

Having done this, Merritt, Dr. Semple (a little later one 
of the editors of The Calif ornian, the first newspaper), and 
the other leading spirits concluded to take an even more 
radical step : they captured by surprise the chief town of the 
region, Sonoma, where General Vallejo had headquarters, 
fortified by nine small brass cannon, and a couple of hundred 
muskets, all equally inefficient. Thirty-three Americans 
achieved the capture without a struggle, with the watch- 
words, "Equal rights and equal laws," as they surrounded 
the Vallejo residence, before the General had arisen. He 
invited them all to take a drink with him, which they very 
willingly did, and everything was most amicable. Writing 
afterwards in the third number of The Californian, August 
22, 1846, Semple was proud that this unorganised force had 
behaved so well. "However able," he writes, 

may be the pen which shall record these events, none but those 
who have witnessed the moderation, and uniform deportment 
of the little garrison left at Sonoma, can do them justice, for 
there has been no time in the history of the world where men 
without law, without officers, without the scratch of a pen, as to 
the object in view, have acted with that degree of moderation 
and strict observance of persons and property as was witnessed 
on this occasion.* 

Though the men were dressed in leather hunting shirts, 
some very greasy, and were a rough-looking lot (clothes 
did not make the man in the great West), they treated 
very well the several prisoners they felt obliged to take. 
These were General Vallejo (afterwards a staimch American 
and altogether a remarkably fine character), his brother, and 
his secretary Prudon; taken because of their influence in 
Mexican affairs. They were carried, with their interpreter 
Leese, to Fremont's camp and Leese was arrested there by 

ready to oppose them and give them a warm reception, if required." Cited 
by Richman, p. 490, California under Spain and Mexico. 

* The Californian, Aug. 22, 1846, "The Bear Flag Party, by an Eyewitness." 







A. — The original "Bear Flag," made by Todd at Sonoma, June 14, 1846; 

"California Republic." 
B. Guidon belonging to Sonoma Troop, California Battalion; "Republic 

of California." 
These flags were destroyed in the San Francisco Earthquake disaster. 

From Out UV.s/ .l/ii,;ij-i»if, Auniibl, iiyos. 



The Bear Flag 333 

Fremont's order. On the same day that Sonoma was 
captured, which was the 14th of June, 1846, the captors 
got together and partially organised the "Republic of 
California." To signal this event a man named Todd 
(later a prisoner and freed by Captain Ford at Petaluma) 
made a flag by painting with lampblack and pokeberry juice 
(which is a purplish red), on white cotton cloth (from a 
white petticoat purchased for a dollar from Miss Anna 
Frisbie, then visiting in Sonoma), which had a stripe of red 
flannel across the bottom, a large star in the upper left-hand 
corner, and just to the right of this and facing it at the top 
of the flag, the figure of what he intended for a grizzly bear. * 
The bear emblem was suggested by Captain Ford. Across 
the middle were drawn the words,'' California Republic,'' all 
of which indicated the almost spontaneous nature of the 
whole effort to secure justice and protection. This flag 
gave the name to the movement. It was run up on the 
vacant Mexican staff and the "Bear Flag Party" became a 
fixture in the history of California. Even had the Mexican 
War not occurred at this moment, it is doubtful if the Mexi- 
cans, alone, could ever have dislodged the Bear Flag Republic 
from the country north of San Francisco Bay. The road 
to Oregon was open and recruits, both English and Ameri- 
can, would speedily have come that way, and with the ability 
of all these men to shoot true, and their energy and fearless- 
ness, their movement, probably, would have been permanent, 
particularly as many of the native Califdl^ians were in sym- 
pathy, and Pio Pico and Castro were at swords' points. 

A small garrison was left at Sonoma, consisting of about eight- 
een men, under command of Wm. B. Ide, which in the course of a 
few days was increased to forty. On the 1 8th day of June, Mr. Ide, 
by the consent of the garrison, published a proclamation setting 

* A lone star was in the flag of Texas, and a lone star had been the only 
emblem of the flag raised by Isaac Graham in the California revolt of ten 
years before — a red star on a white ground, representing the single state. A 
star for each state is the American idea. 



334 Fremont and '49 

forth the objects for which the party had gathered and the prin- 
ciples which would be adhered to in the event of" their success. ^ 

It recited the grievances of the settlers in not being al- 
lowed a voice in the government and being threatened with 
expulsion, and declared that "all persons not found under 
arms would not be disturbed in their persons, their property, 
or their social relations."^ "To overthrow a government," 
continued Ide's proclamation, "which has seized upon the 
property of the Missions for its own aggrandizement: who 
has ruined and shamefully oppressed the laboring people 
of California by their enormous exactions on goods imported 
into the country, is the determined purpose of the brave 
men who are associated under my command." 

The reference to the Missions was to the fact that after 
the independence of Mexico, these establishments had 
become prey of the politicians. The Missions had grown 
very rich. They were thenceforward compelled to contri- 
bute heavily and from about 1830 their actual decline was 
rapid. Their rich fields and gardens were regarded with 
covetous eyes by many an official, and by 1840 these unique 
communities, the glory of early California, were nearing 
their end ; some already had reached it. 

In the course of the Sonoma occupation, two young 
Americans, Cowie (or Cowey) and Fowler, were captured on 
the road by Mexicans, and, it is claimed, were horribly 
tortured and mutilated before being killed, all in a manner 
too revolting to be described. The Bear Flag soldiers, 
discovering this, sent a force of twenty-two men to attack 
the perpetrators of the crime, the Mexican command imder 
Padilla (a noted outlaw some say — a barber say others), 
who had been joined by Captain de la Torre, of Castro's 

^ The Calif ornian, Aug. 22, 1846, "The Bear Flag Party, by an Eyewitness." 

^ Commander Montgomery in a letter to Fremont dated Sausalito, June 

23d, describes the capture of the horses and of Sonoma as " master-strokes," but 

thought they ought to have been " followed up by a rush upon Santa Clara, 

where Castro might have been taken by thirty men." Memoirs, p. 527. 



White Savagery 335 

army, the combined strength amounting to over eighty men. 
Captain Ford, at the head of the Americans, met them on 
June 23d and directed his men so well that their shots were 
fiercely destructive. Eight of the enemy were killed 
(according to Semple), two were wounded, and a horse 
wounded.' This encounter took place on the Camilo 
ranch at Olompali, between San Rafael and Petaluma. 
Torre had been sent by General Castro to reconnoitre the 
situation at Sonoma, which he was planning to attack. 
Several American prisoners were liberated by this action, 
among them Todd, the man who painted the Bear Flag. 
Letters from Torre purposely sent to be intercepted were in- 
tercepted, and the false information they conveyed enabled 
Torre to escape. The three bearers of the letters were killed 
by the Dela wares according to Fremont, partly to avenge the 
deaths of Cowie and Fowler, but Richman states that the 
three strangers were shot down by Kit Carson and a party 
sent to intercept them. However that might be it was a 
savage, cold-blooded proceeding and a blot on the conduct 
of Fremont and his men.^ 

Neither Commander Montgomery nor Consul Larkin, 
nor anyone else on the coast, could have had the inside 
information as to the United States government's intentions 
which Fremont possessed, and the situation naturally had 
a different aspect to them. Professor Royce points out that 
Fremont represented to Montgomery that he required the 
supplies he got, for the continuance of his scientific work, 
but the reason for this statement was probably the same that 
caused him to send his resignation to Senator Benton to 
hold ready at this time; the outcome was uncertain and he 
did not wish to commit either the government, or an officer, 
to his action unless it might later be deemed correct.^ He 

* "The Bear Flag Party, by an Eyewitness," from The Califoniian, Aug. 
22, 1846, reprinted in Otit West Magazine, vol. xxiii., pp. 152 et scq. 

'See Memoirs, p. 325, Richman's California, p. 313, Benton's Thirty 
Years, vol. ii., and Royce's California, p. 82. 

J In a letter to Benton dated July 25th, he says that his intention was to 



336 Fremont and '49 

had decided that the time had come for him to act in the 
best interest of the United States, but he recognised the 
hazard and made it possible for his government easily to 
repudiate his course, and he eliminated Montgomery's 
responsibility for giving him the supplies except for scien- 
tific purposes. 

Benton says of the information brought by Gillespie : 

The verbal communications from the Secretary of State were 
that Mr. Fremont should watch and counteract any foreign 
scheme on California, and conciliate the good will of the inhabi- 
tants towards the United States. ... It was not to be supposed 
that Lieutenant Gillespie had been sent so far, and through so 
many dangers, merely to deliver a common letter of introduction 
on the shores of the Tlamath Lake. 

He also states : 

Three great operations fatal to American interests were then 
going on, and without remedy if not arrested at once. These 
were — i. The massacre of Americans and the destruction of 
their settlements in the Valley of the Sacramento. 2. The 
subjection of California to British protection. 3. The transfer 
of the public domain to British subjects. And all this with a 
view to anticipate the events of the Mexican War, and to shelter 
California from the arms of the United States.* 

Montgomery states that Larkin told him "that the feeling 
is rife that California is soon to be governed by England or 
the United States, predilections being divided."^ 

In his first item, Senator Benton erred, for there had been 
no massacre of Americans or destruction of their settle- 
ments in the Valley of the Sacramento. 

At this time (1846) the town of San Francisco only had 

use these supplies to get out of the country, but this was doubtless only a 
further safeguard, as he seems to have had no idea of going. 

^ Benton's Thirty Years, vol. ii. 

2 Montgomery and Fremont : New Documents on the Bear Flag Affair, 
by Josiah Royce, Century Magazine, vol. xix., N. S., pp. 780 et seq. 



Fremont vs. Sutter 337 

between one and two hundred population, but it was then 
recognised as the nucleus of "one of the largest and most 
opulent commercial cities in the world."' "In one year the 
population had increased to about 1200 and houses were 
rising in all directions." There was no question, therefore, 
from the start, as to the future of San Francisco. 

The horses captured from Arce had been sent to Fre- 
mont's camp and there they were held, but the prisoners 
were taken to Sutter's Fort. Sutter had expressed sur- 
prise that Fremont had sanctioned this rebellion, and this 
seems to have been reported to the Captain, for when' the 
latter followed to Sutter's, something passed between them. 
Sutter had been elated at the prospect, so Bidwell states, of 
securing California for the United States. After the inter- 
view with Fremont, 

in a few minutes Sutter came to me [Bidwell] greatly agitated, 
with tears in his eyes, and said that Fremont had told him that he 
was a Mexican, and that if he did not like what he (Fremont) was 
doing he would set him across the San Joaquin River and he 
could go and join the Mexicans. But, this flurry over, Sutter 
was soon himself again, and resumed his normal attitude of 
friendship towards Fremont, because he thought him to be 
acting in accordance with instructions from Washington. ^ 

It will be remembered that Fremont had, and without 
cause, distrusted Bidwell when he arrived at Sutter's 
earlier in the year, and for some reason he seems to have 
been suspicious of Sutter's good faith also, the latter being 
a Mexican citizen and a supporter of Micheltorena. -^ The 

' What I Saw in Califoniia, Edwin Bryant, 1848, p. 324. New York, 
Appleton, second edition. 

' Century Magazine, vol. xi.x., N. S., p. 520. 

3 Perhaps Fremont had discovered that Sutter on Fremont's first visit had 
sent a report "as an officer of the Government" to Micheltorena telling of 
Frt-mont's arrival and plans, which led to the visit of Lieut. -Col. Telles and 
twenty-five dragoons to inquire Fremont's business. But Fremont had gone 
on. See Sutter's Diary, cited in The Life and Times of John A . Sutler, by T. J. 
Schoonover, Sacramento, 1907, p. 75. 



338 Fremont and '49 

Bear Flag men of Sonoma joined Fremont when he came 
to that place, with ninety men, Jime 25th, and they went 
forth in an endeavour to meet the forces of Castro and Torre 
but without success. Fremont had now decided that he 
must assume command, as an officer in the army of the 
United States, with whom the navy was co-operating. 
"This gave to my movements the national character which 
must of necessity be respected -by Mexico and by any foreign 
power with which she might ally herself; and would also 
hold offensive operations in check until actual war between 
the governments should make an open situation." In this 
remark the plan of the Captain is exhibited — that of holding 
the situation as it was, if possible, till the expected rupture 
should take place on the Rio Grande, or till news of it 
should arrive. He drew up his resignation, before referred 
to, to be sent to Senator Benton, in order that if necessary 
to repudiate his action, the government could do so. As 
Sutter was an officer of the Mexican government, Fremont 
placed in charge of Sutter's Fort, as a United States Post, 
his topographer, Edward Kern. Only one of Fremont's 
men ventured to disagree with him on the expediency or 
wisdom of the course he was pursuing, and this was Risdon 
Moore, who "expressed dissent verging on disobedience." 
He was promptly locked up in a barren, strong room in 
the bottom of one of the bastions. After a night here he 
resumed his place, without malice, and stood by the Captain 
through everything in the future. 

General Castro issued two proclamations June 17th, one 
calling on his countrymen to unite against the foe, and the 
other stating that "All foreigners residing among us, occu- 
pied with their business, may rest assured of the protection 
of all the authorities of the department, whilst they refrain 
entirely from all revolutionary movements," which was a 
change of front. He had not yet learned about the war with 
the United States, and he was in trouble with Governor 
Pio Pico. 



The Bear Flag Army 339 

Bidwell, as Kern was in charge of the prisoners at Sut- 
ter's Fort, went to Sonoma to join Fremont. "The Bear 
Flag was still flying. , , . There was much doubt about 
the situation. Fremont gave us to understand that we must 
organise." Bidwell says before this uprising they had felt 
entirely secure, but this hardly could have been the case as 
the Bear Flag revolt was not started by Fremont, but by 
Merritt, Idc, and other active settlers, who felt the insecurity 
of their position, and Fremont only joined in as leader when 
he saw that the movement was determined and ought to be 
recognised. The meeting for organisation took place. All 
the proclamations proposed were too long, and Bidwell 
finally wrote this: "The undersigned hereby agree to or- 
ganise for the purpose of gaining and maintaining the 
independence of California." The various documents were 
submitted to Gillespie for decision and he chose Bidwell's. 
"The meeting then took place, but Fremont's remarks gave 
us no light upon any phase of the situation. He neither 
averred nor denied that he was acting under orders from the 
United States Government. " ^ But he told the men he would 
have nothing to do with the movement unless they would 
conduct themselves properly. Three companies were then 
organised; the captains elected were Henry L. Ford, Gran- 
ville P. Swift, and Samuel J. Hensley. 

Archie H. Gillespie, ist Lieutenant U. S. M. Corps and 
Special and Confidential Agent for California, was in com- 
plete co-operation with Captain Fremont. He had not been 
selected by the powers in Washington for a difficult mission 
without being instructed in the expectations of the govern- 
ment, and his immediate acquiescence and aid in every move 
of Fremont indicates that he regarded it all as quite in line 
with the expectations, if not the instructions. 

Professor Royce, in his admirable work, California,' 

'Bidwell, Century Magazine, vol., xix., N. S., p. 522. 
' California. From the Conquest in 1846 to the Second Vigilance Committee 
in San Francisco. A Study of American Character, by Josiah Royce. Boston & 



340 Fremont and '49 

takes a too pessimistic view, it seems to me, of the whole 
Bear Flag episode, as well as of the career of Fremont. He 
appears to think because these men were in buckskin and 
somewhat greasy, and one or two got drunk, that they were, 
as a body, without responsibility, and that they treated 
the Mexicans with indignity and injustice. Occasional 
drunkenness was not regarded on the frontier (or anywhere 
else) at that time as a disgrace, or as proving a man's 
moral depravity. It is a fact that the entire American 
community north of San Francisco Bay were in the Bear 
Flag revolt, and most of them were men of upright character. 
They had good reason to be apprehensive of the action of the 
Mexican government, and its California representatives, 
which placed them in a precarious position. Castro's procla- 
mation concerning protection of foreigners had said nothing 
about their lands. 

Confiscation of property of foreigners, especially of Amer- 
icans, was no new thing and not so improbable as Professor 
Royce and others appear to believe. Jedediah Smith, the 
Patties, and many more had suffered great losses, and the 
rankest imposition, both in California and in New Mexico, 
with the addition in frequent cases of revolting cruelties. 
These facts were well known to the settlers on the Sacra- 
mento, and especially to Carson, Walker, and the other 
frontiersmen with Fremont. They were all aware that once 
aroused, the Mexican officials halted at no form of vicious 
imposition or cruelty. The diabolical treatment of the 
Texans of the Santa Fe Expedition had not been forgotten, 
and "Remember the Alamo" still rang in their ears. The 
Mexican in war was, and still is, a man of cruelty. 

In all the uncertainty, amid rumours of immediate war 
between Mexico and the United States (the Mexican War 
had already begun more than a month before) ; the proclama- 

New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1888. The date of the preface of this 
book is 1886, March, two months before Fremont dated the preface to his 
Memoirs. 



Sloat's Orders 341 

tion declaring alien property void; the known determination 
of the United States to secure the Bay of San Francisco, if 
not all California; the frequent attempts to make an inde- 
pendent California — this insurrection which for convenience 
goes by the name of the flag raised at Sonoma, was a neces- 
sary and a logical outcome. These men, bred to manage 
their own affairs, did not need any special leader to crystallise 
the feeling that was in each one's heart — the Bear Flag 
movement was an imperative, and almost spontaneous, out- 
growth of conditions. The revolt came first, leaders after- 
ward; and the presence of Fremont, while.it gave confidence, 
was a coincidence. Trouble was in the air. 

Some writers hold that the revolt destroyed the careful 
plan of the Washington authorities, and of Larkin, their 
civil representative in California, to secure the country by 
peaceful means; but it is plain that this plan was shattered 
by the Mexican announcement, banishing foreigners and 
practically confiscating their lands and property, directed 
by the war prospects so long developing and now a fact. 
But after all this peace order could hardly be described as 
the full plan of an Administration which, for months, begin- 
ning with the 24th of June, 1845, had repeatedly notified 
Commodore Sloat to hoist the American flag over California, 
particularly over the Bay of San Francisco, at the very first 
opportunity.' Naturally this order was coupled with an 
admonition to do the work as peaceably as possible, in view 
of the representations of Larkin, but this was not a permit 
to ignore the main order to raise the flag. 

Consul Larkin, closely and peacefull}^ associated with the 
Mexicans at Monterey, and knowing the pro-American 

' The California matter was entirely directed by George Bancroft. " The 
truth is," he writes, "no officer of the Government had anything to do with 
California, but the Secretary of the Navy, so long as I was in the Cabinet," 
letter to Frdmont, 1886, cited Century Magazine, vol. xix., N.S., p. 924. 
Bancroft approved all Frdmont had done, and possibly Fremont's adherence 
to Commodore Stockton later in the affair was influenced by his then knowing 
that Bancroft was directing affairs. 



342 Fremont and '49 

tendencies of many of them, was sure he could bring about 
a bloodless consummation, and doubtless if California could 
have been dealt with, irrespective of Mexico, and other 
powers, in time he might have succeeded, but with Mexico 
heavily in debt to England, with France also on the watch, 
and with the situation altogether such that in the judg- 
ment of a diplomat Hke Duflot de Mofras (of the French 
Legation in Mexico), California would fall to "whatever 
nation chooses to send there a man-of-war and two hundred 
men," it seems clear that Larkin's plan was hopeless at this 
stage of the matter; at least was no reason for holding back. 
The nation that acted first would be first. And this was 
what gave Fremont his great concern and led him to foster 
the Bear Flag revolt. 

Fremont's expeditions as a matter of fact all had been 
largely directed towards the acquisition of California; and 
the third expedition even had been given a thorough military 
equipment, and it was planned to be there in "the nick of 
time," And there it was; with conditions not exactly, 
perhaps, such as had been anticipated. Was the Captain 
on that account now to march away again with his sixty 
sharpshooters, or should he use the discretionary power 
given him in Washington and take advantage of this Bear 
Flag revolt to immediately establish the claim of the United 
States in advance of an}^ other possible claimant? He knew 
that actual hostilities of the Mexican War were merely a 
matter of weeks, after the coming of spring, 1846; that the 
American troops on the Rio Grande and the Mexican troops 
could not long remain merely looking at one another. He, 
therefore, concluded to aid the Bear Flag revolt and thereby, 
as an American officer, secure possession in this region of 
San Francisco Bay which was the chief interest of Bancroft, 
Webster, Benton, President Polk, and all the other leading 
men of the Administration. 

If his action was premature, it could be repudiated, as 
that of Commodore Jones had been, but if the government 




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American Possession 343 

desired to utilise the incident it would be able to do so. 
Fremont, an American officer, being in possession of the 
country, the advent of a cruiser of another nation at the 
critical moment would have less importance. As before 
pointed out, while England undoubtedly wanted California, 
and undoubtedly had certain plans under way to acquire 
it, she had no intention, or desire, to go to war about it, as, 
indeed, she has always been conciliatory with the United 
States. But, if a British vessel unopposed, could sail into 
the Bay at the opportune moment, and raise her flag, it 
would be the United States which would have to be ag- 
gressive if they wanted the country. The Washington 
government had planned to have an American cruiser there 
first, but the tardy movement of Commodore Sloat came 
very near spoiling the broth. In that case Fremont's 
presence and occupation would have been a positive card in 
opposing British claims — the Bear Flag business practically 
put the Americans in possession, although some of our 
historians choose to treat the movement with ridicule. 
Bidwell, who was a serious man and a reliable one in every 
respect, does not appear to see anything ridiculous in the 
revolt though, at first, he did not approve, which was natural, 
owing to his affiliation with Sutter who was somewhat "on 
the fence" in the very beginning. 

Commander Montgomery, writing June 16, 1846, to 
William B. Ide, says in reply to a request for powder: "and 
have no right or authority to furnish munitions of war, or 
in any manner to take sides with any political party, or 
even indirectly to identify myself, or official name, with any 
popular movement (whether of foreign or native residents) 
of the country, and thus, sir, must decline giving the required 
aid. " As an officer of the navy he had no other course, and 
he would have been obliged to answer Fremont the same 
way, except that Fremont's diplomatic requisition was 
made "for scientific purposes," leaving any irregularity to 
be charged to Fremont himself and not to Montgomery. 



344 Fremont and '49 

In a letter to Montgomery dated June i6th, Fremont 
accordingly says: 

My position has consequently become a difficult one. The 
unexpected hostility which has been exercised towards us on the 
part of the military authorities of California has entirely de- 
ranged the plan of our survey and frustrated my intention of 
examining the Colorado of the Gulf of California, which was one 
of the principal objects of this expedition. ... It is therefore 
my present intention to abandon the farther prosecution of our 
exploration and proceed immediately across the mountainous 
country to the eastward . . . and thence to the frontier of 
Missouri. . . . The nature of my instructions and the peace- 
ful nature of our operations do not contemplate any active 
hostility on my part, even in the event of war between the two 
countries; and therefore, although I am resolved to take such 
active and precautionary measures as I shall judge necessary 
for our safety, I am not authorised to ask from you any other 
than such assistance, as, without incurring yourself unusual 
responsibility, you would feel at liberty to afford me.^ 

In one of his later replies Montgomery says: "Although 
neutral in my position, I cannot be so in feeling and am 
anxiously looking for further intelligence." 

The prisoners from Sonoma had arrived that very even- 
ing. They had insisted on surrendering to Fremont, who 
had already made his punitive expedition against the Indi- 
ans, and was more or less implicated in the revolt. In view 
of the extra powerful force with which he had entered Cali- 
fornia, and the unnecessary readiness with which he placed 
himself in opposition to Castro, his knowledge that the war 
with Mexico could not now be far off, and his sympathy 
and aid to the revolutionists, this message to Montgomery 

' "Montgomery and Fremont: New Documents on the Bear Flag Affair," 
by Josiah Royce. Century Magazine, vol. xix., N. S., p. 780. Professor Royce 
makes much of the Fremont letter of June i6th to prove what Fremont's in- 
structions were as compared with his later statements, but it seems to me 
that the later statements were much more likely to be correct. 



The "Other Events" 345 

sounds as if it were merely a document for Montgomery to 
file for his own future defence, if such defence should 
become necessary. If Fremont actually had wanted to 
leave for home he could have done so immediatel}' after 
the Castro affair, the season being favourable, instead of 
going towards Oregon, within earshot as it were of Monterey, 
and loitering in California on a Hne of communication. Or 
as before mentioned he might have continued, without inter- 
ference, on his way by the western side of the San Joaquin 
Valley, south to Tehachapi Pass and so on to the Colorado. 
There appears to have been nothing to prevent his leaving 
at any time, consequently these assertions of a desire to go 
back seem more like diplomacy than reality; they were 
merely precautionary. 

Professor Royce remarks in his California (p. 85): "But 
it is at least necessary to remember that the show of official 
support which Commodore Sloat's seizure of Monterey 
would seem to have given to Captain Fremont was in 
fact but an accidental outcome of other events, and was 
not in the least contemplated by our government in its 
official instructions to the navy." This in a measure was 
true, but the "other events" had been anticipated for at 
least a whole year, and Secretary Bancroft, by repeated 
communications to Commodore Sloat, had been keeping 
him alive to the importance of immediate action when 
the "other events" should occur — that is, when the ap- 
proaching, expected, and inevitable clash of troops should 
take place on the Rio Grande. Professor Royce and some 
other historians appear to forget the contiguous circum- 
stances in their apparent desire to discredit Fremont. Why, 
it may be asked, did it happen that Captain Fremont found 
himself, after a previous thorough reconnaissance, in Cali- 
fornia, with sixty skilled marksmen, at the opportune mo- 
ment and with orders from Washington to act according 
to his best judgment? 

Captain Fremont was playing a waiting game as far as 



346 Fremont and '49 

he was able to do so. It was not possible for him to be 
definite under the circumstances and he daily expected news 
of the beginning of the war which would have given him a 
free hand in co-operation with the navy, for the co-operation 
of the navy in the event of war was, of course, a foregone 
conclusion. Rumours of hostilities on the Rio Grande 
came through Indian sources, finally confirmed by Com- 
modore Sloat. No specific instructions to co-operate were 
necessary to the officers; but Commodore Sloat proved to 
possess no initiative and exhibited a singular reluctance 
to act when the time came. The Bear Flag revolt was a 
spontaneous outgrowth of conditions which had been aug- 
menting in California for a number of years. It was 
partly precipitated by Mexican orders issued on account 
of the nearness of the impending war, and it was, therefore, 
hardly as accidental at this time as Professor Royce as- 
sumes. Diplomats and leaders who could not have prog- 
nosticated with some degree of exactness most of the 
events from the happenings of the last two or three years 
would have been blockheads. Everything had been leading 
towards these events as surely as brooks from the mountains 
flow down to the master stream. There was no mystery 
about it all; but actions had to be shaped to immediate 
conditions. There certainly is little ground for sneers con- 
cerning the efforts of a loyal American officer to find his 
duty and to do it to the best of his judgment and ability; 
on the contrary, his action should be commended, and I hope 
Fremont may be treated more generously in the future. 
Ri<iicule and contumely are perhaps entertaining, but they 
are neither criticism nor argimient. Fremont may not 
always have done exactly the best thing, but he did what 
his deliberate judgment dictated and on the whole he did 
remarkably well. 

Among the series of orders issued from the departments of 
war and navy [Bancroft] in the spring and summer of 1845, when 



The Invasion 347 

Texas was about to accept the offer of annexation and the 
threats of the Mexicans were to be put to the test, was one to 
Commodore Sloat, dated June 24th, containing general instruc- 
tions to suit the emergency. He was warned to avoid any act of 
aggression, but was reminded of the defenceless condition of the 
Mexican ports on the Pacific, and directed to take possession of 
San Francisco the moment he heard that Mexico had declared 
war against the United States. ^ 

But Larkin was informed by Buchanan that, "Whilst the 
president will make no effort and use no influence to induce 
the Californians to become one of the free and independent 
states of this union, yet if the people should desire to unite 
their destiny with ours, they would be received as brethren 
whenever this can be done without affording Mexico any 
just cause of complaint. " "^ The latter order almost annulled 
the first in Sloat's mind. 

News of the fighting on the Rio Grande reached Sloat 
May 17, 1846, the fighting having begun on April 24th by a 
skirmish on the part of the Mexicans. General Taylor had 
advised, October 4, 184^, an advance of troops to the Rio 
Grande, and this must have been after consultation on the 
subject for some time preceding the advice. It was a flat 
challenge to Mexico to defend, if she dared, the territory 
which the United States meant to appropriate. The order 
to so advance was issued January 13, 1846. Accordingly the 
United States army proceeded on the 8th of March, from 
Corpus Christi, where it had been stationed, and reached 
Point Isabel March 24th. A deputation of fifty Mexicans 
protested against this movement in vain. The American 
flag was unfurled and a battery, Fort Brown, at once erected. 
All Americans, including the consul, were then expelled 
from Matamoras opposite. It was these events which were 
reflected in the movement in California against Americans 
who were not citizens of Mexico. To assert, therefore, as 

' Westward Extension, 1841-1S50, by George Pierce Garrison, Ph.D., 
N.Y., Harpers, 1906, p. 232. ' Ihid., p. 233. 



348 Fremont and '49 

some do, that there were no grounds for apprehension is ab- 
surd. The Governor of California would certainly be apprised 
of the war conditions and would receive orders accordingly. 
This was the basis of the proclamation against the Americans. 
It is not reasonable to suppose that with actual war with the 
United States begun, or about to begin by her resentment of 
invasion, Mexico would not take steps to secure her Cali- 
fornia possessions from further occupation by aggressive 
American settlers, armed exploring parties, and the like. 

Sonoma was taken by the Bear party more than a month 
after the beginning of hostilities, and Governor Pio Pico 
must already have had news of the war and transmitted it to 
General Castro. Their differences would temporarily vanish 
in the face of the greater event, and in fact they were pre- 
sently reconciled and they then combined to resist their 
common foe. 

Commodore Sloat, instead of taking possession of the 
Californian ports, as repeatedly he had been warned by 
George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy, immediately to do 
on the outbreak of war, was so fearful of committing the 
mistake of Commodore Jones, and was so in accord with 
Larkin's idea that the country could be acquired peacefully 
and without ruffling anyone's feelings, that he delayed 
action. He sent the Cyane imder Captain Mervine to 
Monterey with a confidential message to Larkin, but with 
no orders to raise the flag. Hearing then, on June 7th, 
further news of the war, Sloat himself proceeded in the 
Savannah (first maneuvring, it is said, to deceive the British 
Admiral as to his purpose) to Monterey, where he arrived on 
July 2d. Here again he delayed. Larkin still wished to 
adhere to the old plan, which was natural as he was on most 
friendly terms with residents and authorities, but he failed 
to distinguish between California a dependency of Mexico 
and a booty of war, and California the former half -separated, 
drifting colony, peopled by those who were largely in accord 
with him, or who at least were not opposed to his views 



Raising the Flag 349 

of peaceful annexation to the United States. Those who 
thought of throwing their allegiance to Great Britain, he 
expected to win over, not realising, apparently, that tempo- 
rising was no longer expedient. Sloat was looked to, in the 
certain event of the Mexican War, planned, pushed, and con- 
trolled from Washington for these many months, or even 
years (I do not charge with the express design of securing 
California, but with that object as a contingency),' to 
eliminate the California question by raising our flag before 
any other nation could act to American disadvantage and 
embarrassment. Possession would be a conclusive factor. 
But Sloat proceeded too cautiously. Finally he took action, 
and on July 7, 1846, he raised the American flag over the 
custom-house in Monterey, and issued a proclamation declar- 
ing California annexed to the United States. On the 9th of 
the same month the flag was placed over San Francisco, and 
also over Sonoma, there extinguishing the Bear Flag for ever, 
and on the nth, it was put up over Sutter's Fort. "I received 
the Order," says Sutter, "to raise the flag by Sunrise from 
Lt. Revere, long time before daybreak, I got ready with 
loading the Canons and when it was day the roaring of the 
Canons got the people all stirring. Some of them made long 
faces, as they thought if the Bear Flag would remain there 
would be a better chance to rob and plunder."^ 

On the 8th of June, Castro had proclaimed martial law in 
defiance of Governor Pio Pico, and that officer was soon 
marching north to exact submission, but on the way learning 
of the capture of Sonoma by the Americans he changed his 
tactics, and proceeded to arrange a conference with Castro, 
to plan resistance to the common enemy. Sloat properly 
communicated with them both, in his endeavour to carry the 
occupation peacefully, according to his orders. Professor 

' The Mexican War merely was a part of the compact u-ith Texas that the 
United States must adhere to the claim that the Rio Grande was the western 
boundary of Texas, on the mistaken idea that it was part of the original Louisi- 
ana Purchase. The United States had exchanged that claim for Florida. 

= Sutler's Diary, July nth. 



350 Fremont and '49 

Royce, in his Calif or?iia, says Fremont's "conduct in the 
north remained effective as a serious hindrance in the way 
of the true conquest of California. It delayed the raising 
of the flag a full week after Sloat's arrival by making 
him uncertain how to apply his instructions to the anoma- 
lous conditions."^ This seems to be a statement without 
reason except to make out a case against Fremont. Sloat's 
instructions were exceedingly definite and positive. On 
hearing of war, he was immediately to seize the Califomian 
ports; peacefully if possible. There is no ambiguity in 
this, and to lay his hesitation, which was the result of 
adopting Larkin's views, to what the Bear Flag men and 
Fremont, or anyone else, had done is outside the facts. 
Sloat simply vacillated, fearing to repeat the Jones blunder. 
For a year the Mexican War, with the prospective seizure of 
New Mexico and California, had been imminent, and now, 
according to Professor Royce, Sloat failed to execute the 
repeated positive orders from the Navy Department to take 
California, because someone on land had done something else 
he did not quite understand! 

Two days after Sloat raised the flag at Monterey, he 
wrote to Fremont to come as soon as possible with one 
hundred men accustomed to riding, to form a force to pre- 
vent further robbery by Indians. Meanwhile Fremont had 
visited the Mexican fort of San Joaquin (without a garrison) 
on the south point at the Golden Gate, by the help of an 
American merchant captain, whose vessel was in the Bay, 
and all the cannon there were spiked by one of his men, 
Stepp, who was a gunsmith. 

The force which Fremont had with him at Sonoma con- 
sisted of one hundred and sixty men. The Fourth of July 
was celebrated there and the settlers were then organised 
into a battalion numbering two hundred and twenty-four 
men. This settlers' movement, Fremont states, was due to 
his presence, "and at any time upon my withdrawal it would 

» California, by Josiah Royce, p. i6i. 



A Striking Company 351 

have collapsed with absolute ruin to the settlers." It is not 
so certain to me that the Captain was right in his estimate 
in this respect. He now returned to his main camp near 
Sutter's Fort, leaving Captain Grigsby in command at 
Sonoma. B}'- this time Castro had evacuated his position at 
Santa Clara, and had begun a retreat to the Mission of San 
Juan, near Monterey, which, also, he later evacuated. On 
the evening of the loth of July the messenger arrived at 
Fremont's camp from Commander Montgomery with the 
news of Sloat's raising the American flag over Monterey, and 
also that one had been raised at San Francisco, one sent to 
Sonoma to be raised there, and bearing one to be placed over 
Sutter's Fort, which was run up as already described, the 
next morning, with a salute of twenty-one guns. 

Commodore Sloat was desirous of knowing if Fremont 
would co-operate with him, and on Jul}^ 12th the Captain 
received a message from the Commodore with information 
as to what had been done and saying: "I am extremely 
anxious to see you at your earliest convenience; and should 
General Castro consent to enter into a capitulation, it is of 
the utmost importance that you should be present." Ar- 
ranging affairs at Sutter's Fort, Captain Fremont, with a 
feeling that all opposition north of San Francisco Bay was 
now entirely ended, went to Monterey by way of Mission 
San Juan, evacuated by Castro, where he placed a small 
guard. Into Monterey he and his men rode, on July 19, 
1846, a picturesque and striking company, making a deep 
impression on the officers of the British man-of-war CoUing- 
ivood which had recently arrived. Lieutenant Walpole, of 
the Collingwood, wrote: 

A vast cloud of dust appeared first, and thence in long file 
emerged this wildest wild party. Fremont rode ahead, a spare, 
active looking man, with such an eye! He was dressed in a 
blouse and leggings, and wore a felt hat. After him came five 
Delaware Indians, who were his body guard. . . . The rest, 
many of them blacker than the Indians, rode two and two, the 



352 Fremont and '49 

rifle held by one hand across the pommel of the saddle. . . . 
The dress of these men was principally a long loose coat of deer- 
skin, tied with thongs in front ; trowsers of the same of their own 
manufacture. They are allowed no liquor; tea and sugar only. 
. . . They were marched up to an open space on the hills near 
the town, under some long firs, and there took up their quarters, 
in messes of six or seven, in the open air. ' 

Only one man according to Fremont was dressed in buck- 
skin; Lieutenant Walpole was romantic. 

On the appearance of the British ships, Commodore 
Sloat had prepared to defend his position, especially as the 
Collingwood anchored between the Savannah, and the 
Congress, which had recently arrived, but the British Ad- 
miral, Seymour, accepted the situation and the relations 
were cordial.^ He had been on the track of Sloat for some 
time, but that officer had eluded him and arrived at Monte- 
rey in advance. It is reported that in December of this 
same year Admiral Seymour met Captain Tompkins of 
the U. S. S. Lexington, at Valparaiso, and in a friendly chat 
said: "The Yankees were two weeks ahead of us in taking 
California. " ^ By this time an agreement had been reached 
with Great Britain on the Oregon matter; the American 
claim had been practically admitted. A foothold in Cali- 
fornia would have been doubly advantageous for Great 
Britain, hence the desire to secure one. 

Fremont had an interview with Commodore Sloat, and 
when that gentleman discovered that the Captain had not 
been acting under actual orders from Washington, he was 

' Four Years in the Pacific, by Lieut, the Hon. Fred Walpole, R. N. 

2 Admiral Seymour contented himself by sending to Sloat a copy of his 
letter to the British vice-consul Forbes, in which he says, "the tenure under 
which the forces of the United States at present hold this province should, 
therefore, be regarded as a provisional occupation pending future decisions, or 
the issue of the contest between the United States and Mexico. " Memoirs, 

P- 555- 

3 H. D. Barrows, before Historical Society of Southern California, reprinted 
in N. Y. Evening Post, June 22, 191 1. 



Stockton in Command 353 

very much disturbed and "the interview terminated ab- 
ruptly." The Captain was not asked for another, and 
nothing was done. As Fremont justly says, "hesitation was 
incomprehensible," but Sloat hesitated, and would take no 
further steps. Secretary George Bancroft was deeply an- 
noyed by this policy and wrote to Sloat, August 13, 1846: 

In my letter of October 17, 1845, of which you acknowledge 
receipt on the 17th of March, 1846, rcfcrrinj^^ to these instructions 
once more, I said further, "In the event of actual hostilities 
between the Mexican government and our own, you will so dis- 
pose of your whole force as to carry out most effectually the 
objects specified in the instructions forwarded to you from the 
Department in view of such a contingency." And surely there 
is no ambiguity in this language, your anxiety not to do wrong 
has led you into a most unfortunate and unwarranted inactivity. ' 

The U. S. S. Congress was in command of Commodore 
Stockton, a man of a more positive type, though probably 
no better officer, than Commodore Sloat, not at all afraid 
to take definite action. Together with Gillespie, Fremont 
called on him and reported his very unsatisfactory inter- 
view with Commodore Sloat, but, of course, Stockton could 
not express an opinion on the matter, as Sloat was his 
superior officer, and he so informed the Captain, who there- 
upon declared that he intended to make up his mind over 
night whether he should now return to the States, or stay in 
California. Stockton then requested Fremont to remain, 
and he revealed the fact that in a few days he was to super- 
sede Sloat in command of the squadron, as the latter, 
because of ill health, desired to go home. 

Fremont had his interview with Sloat just after his 
arrival on July 19th. On the 23d Stockton requested Com- 
modore Sloat to immediately issue the order for the transfer 
of the command, as he wanted to begin preparations, but 
Sloat declined. He did not wish to leave at once and would 

' Cited in Memoirs, p. 537. 



354 Fremont and '49 

not relinquish command till he was ready to go. He com- 
promised, however, by placing the Cyane under Stockton's 
orders in addition to the Congress already under him. 
Stockton lost no time in communicating with Fremont and 
Gillespie, kindred spirits, to secure their co-operation in his 
plans, as well as to get them to place themselves under his 
authority. Fremont hesitated slightly about giving up 
his independence but in the interest of the general welfare 
he accepted the post. "Knowing," he writes, "that the 
men under my command would go with me, I accepted Com- 
modore Stockton's proposal to take service under him and 
remain with him as long as he required my services. And 
I adhered to this engagement at the cost of my commission 
in the army." 

Commodore Sloat and his policy, and Larkin as well, 
were now out of the reckoning. The next part in the con- 
quest of California was about to begin. 

Note: — For details of incidents on the Rio Grande, see The Life and Letters of 
George Gordon Meade, Major-General, U. S. A., Scribners, 1913, and for 
the Mexican War and matters connected therewith see The United States 
and Mexico, 1821-1848, by George Lockhart Rives, Scribners, 1913. 
Professor Rives ridicules the idea of Magoffin's connection with the 
Army's peaceful entrance into Santa F6, but there seems to be excellent 
ground to believe in it, especially as Benton, who made the assertion, 
was for so many years Chairman of the Senate Military Committee, and 
Magoffin had been, and was, an important and influential figure in 
northern Mexico. We must remember, however, that Benton was not 
friendly to General Kearny and therefore would welcome anything to 
reduce his popularity. Magoffin went on to aid in the same way at 
Chihuahua, but was arrested there by the Mexicans. 






K ^ 




CHAPTER XVI 

THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA 

Capture of San Diego — Los Angeles Occupied — Fall of New Mexico with 
Magoffin's Aid — Carson as Guide Turned Back — Insurrection at Los 
Angeles — The Battle of San Pascual — Killed and Wounded — A Clash of 
Commanders — The California Battalion — Sentence of Death on Pico — 
The Treaty of Couenga — Governor Fremont — A Wonderful Ride — A 
Challenge for a Duel — Fremont under Arrest — Death of his Mother — 
The Court-Martial — Dismissed from the Army. 



HAVING at last taken possession of Monterey, Com- 
modore Sloat asked General Castro to sign articles 
of capitulation, but that wily officer replied, from 
his safe camp, that his duty was to defend his country, that 
Sloat should communicate with the Governor and Assembly 
at Los Angeles for capitulation, and proceeded to take 
himself speedily southward. On the 29th of July, Com- 
modore Sloat sailed for home on board the Levant with 
Commander Page. Stockton then became first in command. 
Appointing Rev. Walter Colton, alcalde of Monterey, 
Stockton prepared to move vigorously on the Mexicans at 
the south. ^ North of Monterey the country had been 
cleared of opposition by the Bear Flag forces, and Fremont's 
idea was to continue this method on land with the co-opera- 
tion by sea of the navy. That is to say, he would have gone 
south by way of the settled country', enlisting on the way 

' See Three Years in California, by Rev. Walter Colton, U. S. N., New 
York, 1859. This book is dedicated "to Gen. Mariano Guadaloupe Vallcjo, 
one of California's distinguished sons, in whom the interests of freedom, 
humanity, and education have found an able advocate and munificent 
benefactor." 

355 



356 Fremont and '49 

all parties in sympathy, and keeping open his line of com- 
munication with the Sacramento Valley. Arrangements pre- 
viously had been made with Commander Montgomery to 
meet him, with the Portsmouth, at Santa Barbara, Mont- 
gomery being secretly favourable to this plan even before 
the definite news of war. 

But Stockton's plan, which was the one carried out, was 
to move south entirely by sea, disembark where desired, and 
carry the country at these points. This had the disadvan- 
tage of permitting the escape into the back country of the 
enemy with horses, cattle, and supplies, and, therefore, 
compelling movements from the ships to be made on foot. 
Fremont's men, accustomed to independence, subjected 
themselves to discipline of the military kind reluctantly, and 
they laughed at the offer of ten dollars a month from Com- 
modore Stockton, but they served nevertheless, expecting 
the Government in the end to decently compensate them. 
On July 25th, the Cyane, Captain Mervine, was ready to 
take them south, and the novelty of a sea voyage was looked 
forward to with more pleasure than was warranted by a band 
of mountaineers who had seldom if ever sailed the ocean 
blue. They were soon in the customary sad frame of mind 
of landsmen at sea as the ship plunged along the coast, and 
they paid their tribute to Neptune in the usual manner. 
In three days a landing was made at San Diego, where 
there was no opposition, Bandini, the leading citizen, and 
Arguello, Captain of the Port receiving them all as friends. 
Bandini was father-in-law to Don Abel Stearns, of Los 
Angeles, one of the most respected and prominent Ameri- 
cans in the country. While Fremont was preparing to 
advance on Los Angeles from this direction, Stockton 
came down and landed at San Pedro with 360 men, with 
Larkin as conciliator. Castro now sent an emissary to 
arrange for a suspension of hostilities, but Stockton de- 
clined to halt unless there was an agreement to raise the 
American flag, whereupon Castro and Governor Pio Pico, 



Carson Goes East 357 

owing to their insufficient force, left the locality after 
the Assembly had adjourned sine die. Castro headed for 
wSonora, while Pio Pico retired some eighteen miles to his 
ranch. There was no opposition, and joined by Fremont, 
Commodore Stockton, on August 13, 1846, entered Los 
Angeles and raised there the American flag. On the 17th 
the country was proclaimed a territory of the United States. 
Captain Fremont was created Military Governor on the 
24th of August. The territor}'- was divided into three dis- 
tricts, and Lieutenant Gillespie was appointed commandant 
of the Southern District with headquarters at Los Angeles, 
and a garrison of fifty men. All the native civil officers were 
permitted to remain in power and to continue their functions 
as before. 

The conquest appeared now to be complete. Stockton 
wrote a letter to Fremont directing him to do all he could to 
further his (Stockton's) intentions, and declared that by the 
25th of October he expected to meet Fremont at San Fran- 
cisco and make him Governor of California. A report was 
prepared to send to George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy, 
and "to insure the safety and speedy delivery of these 
important papers, and as a reward for brave and valuable 
services on many occasions," writes Fremont, "we decided 
to make Carson the bearer of these despatches. " ^ He was to 
call first on Senator Benton who would introduce him to the 
President and Mr. Bancroft. On the way, he would pass 
through Taos, New Mexico, and would be able to see his 
family residing there. His route, according to Fremont, 
would be by way of the Virgin River trail, already described, 
no easy route, and certainly no safe one, but as Kearny met 
him near Socorro he must have gone by the Gila River. 

Meanwhile other things were happening which had a 
bearing on the occurrences in California. Besides the opera- 
tions against Mexico directly, General Kearny, with a con- 
siderable force, was ordered, June 3, 1846, to cross the 

» Memoirs, p. 567. 



358 Fremont and '49 

Plains and conquer New Mexico and California. As yet no 
regular army officer (Fremont being of the Engineer Corps) 
had been engaged in the California doings; all was carried 
on by the navy with volunteers. The governor of New 
Mexico was Armijo, the same brute who had so horribly 
maltreated the Texans, and, like most of these governors, he 
had an eye to the main chance. He was also a coward. 
His chief general was another brute, Salezar; and there was 
a warlike Colonel Archuleta. Archuleta was for fighting the 
Americans, but diplomacy here interfered. An American, 
James Magoffin, long resident in Chihuahua, and well- 
known as an influential man, had been sent by the Washington 
authorities to avoid bloodshed, if possible, by negotiations. 
On the understanding, it is said, that the conquest was to 
stop at the east bank of the Rio Grande, and leave the west 
to them, these warriors with their 7000 troops consented not 
to oppose the American advance.^ 

General Kearny either did not understand the situation 
as Armijo and Archuleta are said to have understood it, or 
he chose to ignore it. At any rate on August 18, 1846, one 
day after Stockton had proclaimed California a territory of 
the United States, General Kearny entered the ancient town 
of Santa Fe without opposition, "in fine array and banners 
streaming in the breeze," The general took up his quarters 
in the "Palace," which is still standing, and proclaimed the 
annexation of all of New Mexico, Armijo fled, fearing his 
own people, it is said, as well as the Americans. After 
organising a government, Kearny, according to orders, pro- 
ceeded on his way to California with three hundred drag- 
oons of the regular army, a force which easily would have 
defeated any army possible for the Mexicans to pit against 

^ James Magoffin had been first consul of the U. S. at Chihuahua. He had 
returned and settled near Independence, Mo., and was called to Washington 
through Senator Benton and sent as secret agent with General Kearny. See 
Doniphan's Expedition, by Wm. E. Connelley, p. 197, and Benton's Thirty 
Years, vol. ii., pp. 682 et seq. 



Insurrections 359 

him in California. He had not proceeded many miles before 
he met Kit Carson (near Socorro, N. M.) on his rapid way 
east, having killed thirty-four mules up to this point, with 
the messages from Stockton and Fremont, and also one 
informing Kearny of the peaceful conquest of California. 

General Kearny therefore concluded that his large force 
was not necessary, especially as the Mormon Battalion, under 
Cooke, was to follow him. He sent back all but one hundred 
dragoons with which he proceeded, and, realising the difficult 
natiu-e of the country, he directed Carson to turn about and 
act as his guide, while Fitzpatrick should proceed in his 
stead to Washington with the messages. ' Carson acquiesced 
reluctantly. Senator Benton, Captain Fremont, and Com- 
modore Stockton, made much of this incident later, in their 
opposition to Kearny, and conveyed the impression that the 
forwarding of the despatches by another than Carson had 
endangered their safe delivery. They endeavoured to make 
it appear that General Kearny was derelict in the matter, 
but as we have seen by the preceding pages, the man to 
whom he entrusted the carriage of the despatches was no 
novice in frontier Hfe, and was at least the equal of Carson 
in almost every respect. He was absolutely faithful, reso- 
lute, and resourceful; consequently the only thing to be 
regretted was Carson's disappointment at not seeing his 
family and Washington at this time, and there appears to be 
no justice in condemning Kearny's action. 

It so happened that in neither the case of New Mexico, 
nor of California, was the occupation to be accomplished so 
easily as at first seemed to be the fact. The dragoons 
Kearny sent back were valuable in New Mexico in the out- 
break which Archuleta fomented as soon as he discovered 
that he had no chance to hold the country beyond the Rio 
Grande, but they would have been of even greater service 

' As noted Carson had not come by the Rio Virgin route but by the Gila, 
a new way which Fitzpatrick had not been over. It was necessary therefore to 
have Carson for guide. 



360 Fremont and '49 

in California when Kearny arrived there to unexpectedly 
encounter the only determined opposition of the entire 
conquest. 

Commodore Stockton, leaving Fremont at Los Angeles, 
where Gillespie was now directly in charge, went by sea up to 
Yerba Buena, San Francisco. In a few days Fremont also 
departed from Los Angeles and marched north by way of 
the Mission of San Fernando, and other settled places, 
under the guidance of William Knight, sounding the Ameri- 
can settlers as to their attitude towards enlisting in a battal- 
ion which Stockton desired to organise for a movement on 
Mexico. On the way he received a note of inquiry about 
this from Commodore Stockton, dated September 28th, 
but circumstances which took place foiu* days before the 
date of the letter compelled a sudden change in all plans. 

Gillespie, as commandant at Los Angeles, it is said, was 
too tyrannical and there was an insurrection, the Flores 
revolt. Some of Castro's officers took command of Los 
' Angeles, and Gillespie could do nothing with his small force 
but accept the Mexicans' generous offer to permit him and 
his troops to depart with honours of war. He marched to 
San Pedro, where, the Mexicans charged, "devoid of shame, 
good faith, and word of honour," he prolonged his stay on 
the Vandalia, a merchant vessel, waiting for the arrival of a 
warship in answer to a message he sent to Stockton.^ This 
was carried bj^- a rider ferociously pursued by Mexicans 
who shot his horse; but, nevertheless, he made five hun- 
dred miles in five days, and reached Yerba Buena the 
evening of the 29th. ■ Immediately, the Savannah, Captain 
Mervine, with 350 men, and a transport with Fremont 
and 160 men, and Stockton in his own vessel the Congress, 
started to Gillespie's relief. Two days before this Fremont 

'For the Gillespie-Flores articles of capitulation, see p. 493, and for 
summary of correspondence between them p. 494, of Richman's California 
under Spain and Mexico. It seems likely that the Mexicans merely took 
advantage of opportunity. 



American Defeat 361 

had arrived from the south, with 170 men, his last stage 
being by boats under Midshipman Edward Beale who had 
been sent to look for him by Commodore Stockton, and of 
whom we shall hear more. Several offers of Americans to 
join the forces were declined on the ground that they were 
not needed, Stockton believing his present force sufficient. ' 

The Commodore, separated in a fog from the Stirling, on 
which was Fremont, proceeded to San Pedro, while Fremont, 
learning from the Vandalia, that no horses could be had 
below, debarked at Monterey, where he could procure them, 
to go down by land. Captain Mervine, reaching San Pedro 
first, landed part of his crew to work with Gillespie's men. 
These forces marched towards Los Angeles, but they were 
soon valiantly met by a large company of Mexicans on 
horseback who operated a single field piece so rapidly and 
skilfully that four of Mervine's men were killed, while six 
were wounded, in an action lasting an hoiu*. Mervine then 
withdrew. The Mexicans being well-mounted, and the 
Americans on foot, the latter could not keep up with the 
movements of the enemy. Other Americans had been 
previously defeated in a skirmish, twenty-five miles east of 
Los Angeles at Chino Ranch. 

Stockton now found it extremely difficult to secure 
horses, or cattle, or fresh provisions, the Mexicans keep- 
ing everything well out of the way. If Fremont's original 
plan of campaign had been followed, there would, by this 
time, have been a line of established communication through 
to the Sacramento Valley, but Stockton did not so well 
appreciate the value of horses. As it was, a vessel was sent 
for supplies to Lower California on the supposition that the 
news of war had not yet penetrated there. 

Meanwhile November, 1846, was passing and the situa- 
tion did not look promising for the immediate success of the 
American arms. The Mexicans re-established themselves 
in Los Angeles, their governmental city, while Stockton was 

' Bryant, What I Saw in California. 



362 Fremont and '49 

vainly endeavouring to secure enough horses to move his men 
against them. By this time General Kearny with his hun- 
dred dragoons reached the border of the settlements, at 
Warner's Ranch, almost without supplies after the long 
dry march, with his men and horses worn out, and notified 
Stockton of his arrival by a letter dated December 2, 
1846, in which he requested that Stockton should send a 
party to open communication, and tell him how things 
now stood. Stockton sent Gillespie, now a captain, with 
a detachment of marines and volunteers, forty in number, 
utilising all the best mounts, and these none too good. 
Midshipman Beale, Captain Gibson of the California Battal- 
ion, and Alexis Godey, who had been made a lieutenant, 
accompanied him. There was also a Mexican from the 
enemy's camp to act as guide in case an attack, recommended 
by Stockton, should be planned, and Stokes, an English- 
man who had brought the message to Stockton, and who went 
back as a neutral spectator. 

Gillespie met Kearny, December 5th, in the afternoon, 
between Santa Maria and Santa Ysabel. The enemy, not 
aware of Kearny's presence, but planning against Gillespie, 
were near San Pascual, which was not far from the present 
town of Ramona, north-east of San Diego. In the grey 
morning of December 6th, as they drew near San Pascual, 
Captain Johnston, by order, with only twenty men, charged 
in advance the Mexican camp (which had been reconnoitred) 
in an attempt to surprise them. He was killed. The Mexi- 
cans were unprepared but acted quickly. Kearny, with all 
but the rear-guard, then swept down on the retreating 
enemy, who suddenly halted and executed a counter-attack 
using their long lances against the American sabres with 
deadly results. Captain Moore and sixteen others were 
killed, which, with Johnston, made eighteen lost at this time, 
while Kearny, Warner, Gillespie, and sixteen more were 
wounded. Lieutenant Hammond so dangerously that he died 
later. The mules attached to one of the howitzers ran away 



Dissension Brews 363 

with it into the enemy's ranks where they were captured 
and the man in charge killed, the gun being carried away. 

Godey was at once sent with a message for Stockton, 
from Captain Turner, in command as Kearny was wounded, 
but Godey was captured on his return, and the Kearny 
camp not knowing what had occurred sent out Kit Carson, 
Lieutenant Beale, and an Indian, to make another attempt. 
They got through, by the exercise of great skill and caution. 
Stockton had been much surprised to learn from Godey that 
Carson, who was supposed to be on his way to Washington, 
was with Kearny, and he was angry to learn from Carson 
himself, when he came, that his orders had been superseded. 
This was the beginning of the notorious disagreement be- 
tween Stockton and Fremont on one side, and General 
Kearny on the other. As Kearny was killed in battle in 
Mexico the next year, the other side had it all their own way 
after that, and they and their friends, ably seconded by 
eloquent denunciations from Senator Benton, seldom lost a 
chance to denounce Kearny, who in some respects was open 
to criticism. Even writing in 1886, when Kearny had been 
in his grave four decades, Fremont, in his Memoirs, still 
expresses deep resentment that Kearny not only should have 
prevented Carson from continuing with the despatches, but 
that in the note written from Warner's Ranch he merely had 
said he met him. Fremont called this duplicity and said 
that "it showed, with the clearness of light, the quality 
which was at the root of his character — a falseness which 
contaminated every other quality." Others did not find 
General Kearny quite so despicable. He appears to have 
been a real soldier who did his duty. The Carson incident 
was trivial, Fitzpatrick, as before remarked, was quite as 
efficient, and Carson was necessary for the proper advance 
of Kearny's force. 

Lieutenant Gray and two hundred sailors and marines 
from Stockton's army arrived December i ith to aid Kearny, 
and the next day the entire body was at San Diego. Here 



364 Fremont and '49 

were now two commanders and two forces united, which 
were to operate for the same object. Commodore Stock- 
ton was the ranking officer on the sea, General Kearny 
on land. Stockton says that he tendered to Kearny the 
position of commander-in-chief and offered to accompany 
him as aid. 

This offer [says Fremont] was a few days afterward formally 
repeated in presence of all the officers that could be spared 
from duty, and again declined. Commodore Stockton wished 
Kearney to understand that he was willing to waive all ques- 
tion of the right to the chief command, in the circumstances, 
and give all power into his hands. Subsequently, and while 
still at San Diego, General Kearney intimated to Stockton that 
he thought that he [Kearny] ought to be governor of the 
territory, under his instructions.^ 

General Kearny had come to San Diego wounded, 
some of his best men killed, his force exhausted from the 
long march and the battle. It was no time for him to 
assert himself. He knew what his instructions were and 
that when the proper time came his position would be 
properly established. 

Stockton claimed to have already inaugurated civil gov- 
ernment except in two places, and that everything was accom- 
plished. He intended to appoint Major Fremont governor, 
and Captain Gillespie secretary, "The refusal to recognise 
his claim to be governor rankled in Kearny's mind and 
guided his conduct," remarks Fremont.^ 

While all these things were happening Fremont was 
actively engaged, in the neighbourhood of Monterey, in 
raising more troops; and there he received news, October 
27th, of his appointment as Lieutenant-Colonel of a rifle 
regiment in the army. A body of Mexicans under Manuel 
Castro was discovered ranging that region and they cap- 
tured Larkin who was on his way to San Francisco. He was 

' Memoirs, p. 589. ' Ibid., p. 590. 



Indian Recruits 365 

not injured though often threatened and at a later date was 
released.' Colonel Fremont departed from Montere}' on 
his way to Los Angeles, and halted at the Mission San Juan 
Bautista^ where he scoured the country in search of Manuel 
Castro and his soldiers, but failed to find them. They re- 
mained at San Juan till the end of November waiting for 
reinforcements "from the [Sacramento] valley" and then 
began the movement to the south to unite with the 
force there which was planning for the recovery of Los 
Angeles. He had some 428 men, including Indians. In 
collecting these men Fremont was materially aided by 
several residents, among them Edwin Bryant who went 
to New Helvetia (Sutter's Fort) for more recruits. He 
arrived after some very strenuous travel by horse and 
boat through stormy weather, just after Fremont's special 
agent had departed with about sixty men who had gathered 
there. Bryant reqiiested Captain Sutter and Edward Kern 
to send among the Indians (l) for recruits to be used as spies 
and scouts, and this was done. Eight white men coming 
from the east recently, and who had been enrolled at another 
settlement, came to Sutter's Fort at this time, and together 
with Bryant they started to join Fremont, picking up about 
thirty Indians on the way. These were some of the same 
Indians, apparently, who had been supposed to be endeavour- 
ing to bum the settlers* crops earlier in the war. There 
seemed now to be no question of their loyalty to the Ameri- 
cans. ^ "The chiefs," says Bryant, "and some of the 

' The story of Larkin's trials is most interesting but limits of space pro- 
hibit even extracts here. See Oni West Magazine, vol. xxiii., p. 234 et seq. for 
a reprint from The Californian of Feb. 27, 1847. 

^ Many of the missions, among them San Juan, were deserted by this 
time, owing to adverse legislation. A small village still remained. 

3 Upham in his Life of John Charles Fremont, p. 242, tells of Fr(5mont's 
going, about this time, with three picked men into the camp of the Wallawalla 
Indians who were said to be planning an attack on the settlements. Instead 
of fighting they "gathered around him to tell their wrongs. They had been 
robbed, and one of their best young men killed by the whites. " He pacified 



366 Fremont and '49 

warriors of these parties were partially clothed, but most of 
them were naked, except a small garment around the loins. 
They were armed with bows and arrows." Again it is dis- 
covered that the Indian was not as bad or intractable as he 
was painted. On November 29th, with this singular com- 
pany, Bryant arrived and reported to Colonel Fremont at 
the mission of San Juan Bautista. 

The force under Colonel Fremont was styled the Califor- 
nia Battalion, the nucleus of it being the men of his third 
"scientific" expedition who had been so carefully trained on 
the way out, not in reading the stars, but in hitting the bull's 
eye; a training which now came in so opportunely. Their 
dress was thus described : 

A broad-brimmed low-crowned hat, a shirt of blue flannel, 
or buckskin, with pantaloons and moccasins of the same, all 
generally much, the worse for wear, and smeared with mud and 
dust, make up the costume of the party, officers as well as men. 
A leathern girdle surrounds the waist, from which are suspended 
a bowie and a hunter's knife, and sometimes a brace of pistols. 
These with the rifle and holster pistols are the arms carried by 
officers and privates. A single bugle (and a sorry one it is) 
composes the band. ^ 

Another man who helped Fremont considerably at this 
time was William Swasey of Monterey, a "young American 
of education and handsome presence," consular secretary to 
Larkin. On November 30th the Battalion started from San 
Juan and moved ten miles where a halt was made while a 
party went back after cattle, appearing with one hundred 
head the afternoon of the first day of December. The 
march was not a pleasure journey as may easily be under- 
stood. The supply of cattle was soon used up, for it takes 
a large amount of meat to keep four hundred and more 

them and promised redress. They sent ten of their "young men for service with 
him. 

' Bryant, What I Saw in California, p. 366. Bryant gives the names 
of the ofiScers of the Battalion. 



Good Order 367 

hungry trampers and riders, and they had to "live on the 
country," not easy there for so large a party. Whatever 
was taken was always receipted for, and the United States 
eventually was to foot the bills. The value (estimated after- 
wards by an appointed board of officers) for all supplies 
taken during Fremont's operations was "appropriated by 
Congress and paid to the respective owners. Sutter also was 
paid for the use of his fort." ' 

Through rain, and mud, and half starved, the Battalion, 
so splendid in devotion and courage, went on south, over the 
mountains instead of by the roads. ^ Bryant, in his admi- 
rable book, gives the itinerary, and it is certain that if sena- 
tors and representatives had experienced but a single day of 
it, or of any other part of Fremont's operations, his subse- 
quent treatment would have been vastly more sympathetic. 
Probably no man, whose services have been so conspicuous 
and so valuable to the United States, was ever so con- 
temptuously treated by the Government and by numerous 
unfriendly critics, most of whom would not have given up 
a single hour of their comfortable firesides to follow his 
arduous tracks. 

With all the temptations of these hungry, half-clad, 
tentless, members of the California Battalion, they were 
careful not to impose on the inhabitants, and Bryant 
remarks: "No military party ever passed through an 
enemy's country and observed the same strict regard for the 
rights of its population. I never heard of an outrage, or 
even a 'trespass' being committed by one of the American 
volunteers during our entire march." This is something 
to be proud of, and I would specially direct to this the 
attention of those gentlemen who have more or less cast 
slurs on such men because they did not wash every hour 

' Memoirs, footnote p. 526. 

^ Fremont was censured for taking this out-of-the-way route, but it seems 
to have been justified by the necessity for caution and his lack of knowledge of 
the power of the enemy. 



368 Fremont and '49 

(through no fault of their own). Also they might note the 
fact that Fremont was, at least partly, responsible for this 
excellent bearing of his company. Many of the Mexicans 
who had been released on parole broke the parole and there 
was much condemnation of them for this failure to adhere 
to their promise. Larkin says: "Four-fifths of the Mexican 
and Californian officers, who had given Commodore Stockton 
their written parole, broke it and took up arms, "^ Among 
these was Don Jesus Pico, a cousin of the governor Pio Pico 
and of Andreas Pico, who was now heading the "insurrec- 
tion" in this region. On December 15th the Battalion 
reached the Mission San Luis Obispo in the darkness of 
night and took possession. In order not to disturb the 
people, the church was opened and used for barracks, a 
constant guard being set to prevent any robbery or desecra- 
tion of the chancel and other valuables. Some beans, 
pumpldns, and pounded wheat, found in the village, were 
appropriated and distributed among the men; "delicacies 
of no common order," exclaims Bryant. 

About thirty of the enemy were captured in the neigh- 
bourhood, one of them being the Don Jesus Pico who had 
broken his parole. A court-martial was convened in the 
morning and its verdict was that Pico should be shot at 
noon. As he was about to be led out, the door of Fremont's 
quarters opened and Dick Owens, the trapper and scout, 
whom Fremont admired greatly, entered with a handsome 
lady in black followed by several children — the family of the 
condemned man — and some ladies of the village. The lady 
dropped on her knees imploring pardon for her husband, 
saying he did not know that he was committing so great a 
crime; the children cried, and Owens, Swasey, and several 
other officers added their opinion that Pico, who meanwhile 
had been brought in, was ignorant of the laws of war. " After 
a moment of hesitation," says Swasey, "Fremont turned 
toward the prisoner. ' I had, ' he said, * rather meet a thousand 

' Larkin's Account reprinted in Out West, vol. xxiii. 



Rough Weather 369 

in the field to-morrow. I pardon you. You are free!*"' 
Fremont himself writes: " 'You were about to die, but your 
wife has saved you. Go thank her.' He fell on his knees, 
made on his fingers the sign of the cross, and said: *I was to 
die — I had lost the life God gave me — you have given me 
another life. I devote the new life to you.' And he did it 
faithfully."^ He accompanied Fremont on the march and 
was with him till he left California. 

All prisoners were released and the Battalion continued 
southward to Santa Barbara where they were encamped by 
December 27th. Bryant gives a vivid description of their 
hard travelling on Christmas day: 

The rain fell in torrents and the wind blew almost with the 
force of a tornado. . . . Driving our horses before us we were 
compelled to slide down the steep and slippery rocks, or wade 
through deep gullies and ravines filled with mud and foaming 
torrents of water, that rushed downwards with such force as to 
carry along the loose rocks and tear up the trees and shrubbery 
by the roots. Many of the horses falling into the ravines refused 
to make an effort to extricate themselves, and were swept down- 
wards and drowned. Others, bewildered by the fierceness and 
terrors of the storm, rushed or fell headlong over the steep 
precipices and were killed. Others obstinately refused to pro- 
ceed, but stood quaking with fear or shivering with cold, and 
many of these perished in the night from the severity of the 
storm . . . and a night of more impenetrable and terrific dark- 
ness I never witnessed.^ 

At Santa Barbara, Fremont was visited by an elderly lady, 
Sciiora Bemarda Ruiz, who wished to use her influence to 
put an end to the war on terms that would make lasting 
peace. She could influence her people, she said, and begged 
Fremont to stay proceedings till she could act. Fremont, 
under every circumstance a gentleman, listened attentively 

* Cited by Richman, California, p. 328. 
' Memoirs, p. 599. 

3 What I Saw in California, Bryant, p. 380. 
24 



370 Fremont and '49 

to all she had to advance, and finally assured her that, when 
the occasion came, he would bear in mind her wishes, and 
that "she might speak on this basis to her friends. Here 
began the Capitulation of Couenga."^ 

On January 3, 1847, the march was resumed and the 
Battalion passed down the coast to the "Rincon," a passage 
between two points along a narrow shore and beach, about 
fifteen miles long, an excellent place for the Mexicans to 
attack the army, and it was expected that trouble would 
come there, but the precaution of having a gunboat escort 
prevented it. Camping on the 5th of January at the Mis- 
sion of San Buenaventura, a small party of the enemy was 
observed, but a shot or two from the field pieces divSpersed 
them. The next day a larger force hovered about, retreat- 
ing before the advance of the Battalion, the horses of the 
latter being so feeble that piirsuit was out of the question. 
On the 9th Captain Hamlyn arrived with a message from 
Stockton, cautioning Fremont to keep his men close to- 
gether and if possible not to fight till he (Stockton) could 
join him. On the nth an advance party, in which was 
Edwin Bryant, met two Mexicans riding in great haste. They 
were from the Mission of San Fernando bearing the informa- 
tion that the Mexican forces had been defeated by General 
Kearny and Commodore Stockton and that the Pueblo 
(or Ciudad as it was beginning to be styled) de los Angeles 
was again in the hands of the Americans. They wanted to 
see Fremont and were taken to him. Colonel Fremont does 
not mention this incident in his Memoirs, nor does he men- 
tion that a Frenchman a little later the same day came along 
with a letter from Kearny at Los Angeles, confirming the 
previous information. 

Camp was made at the Mission of San Fernando, which 
was the home of Andreas Pico the commander of the oppos- 
ing forces, and the latter had arrived and were stationed 
about two miles off. A couple of weeks before this, Stockton 

' Memoirs, p. 600. 



Treaty of Coucnga 371 

and Kearny had moved on Los Angeles, and on the first day 
of January near San Luis Rey, they were met by an offer of 
truce whieh was not accepted and the army of six hundred 
Americans continued to San Juan Capistrano, where am- 
nesty was offered to all who had not broken their parole. 
Proceeding the Americans were met by an army of five 
hundred men under Flores, Andreas Pico, and Jose Antonio 
Carillo. The Mexicans had miserable powder, made in the 
country, and their bullets were ineffective. The Americans 
forded the San Gabriel River in the face of this rather feeble 
defence, and once they were on the other side, the enemy 
retired before them. Following this the opposition was not 
determined and, with a contest for a brief time at the 
Canada de los Alisos, the enemy gave up the defence of Los 
Angeles, and the Americans on January 10, 1847, marched 
into the town, four months after Gillespie had been com- 
pelled to evacuate it. 

The news of this triumph, as noted, reached Fremont the 
following day, the nth of January, at the Mission of vSan 
Fernando. The fleeing Mexican (or Calif ornian) army was 
ready now to treat for peace. A well-armed force equal in 
numbers was behind them, and another well-armed, keen- 
shooting force, almost their equal in numbers, was ready 
before them. There was therefore little choice of action, and 
when Fremont sent Jesus Pico to talk to his cousin Andreas 
Pico and urge a peaceful surrender on liberal terms, he was 
met with a prompt, affirmative response. The next morning 
Colonel Fremont rode to their camp and himself conferred 
with Andreas Pico when the important features of the 
surrender w^ere agreed upon. A truce was ordered, com- 
missioners appointed, and on January 13, 1847, Colonel 
Fremont and the Commissioners, at a deserted ranch at the 
foot of Couenga plain, drew up and signed the articles of 
capitulation known as the Treaty of Couenga. The brass 
howitzer, captured by the Mexicans at the battle of San 
Pascual, owing to the stampede of the mules pulling it, was 



372 Fremont and '49 

here returned. In a letter of Stockton's he refers to the 
capitulation as having been made by Fremont without 
knowing what had occurred (at Los Angeles), but by Bryant, 
an accurate writer, it is evident that news of the capture of 
Los Angeles and the rout of the Mexicans reached the 
Fremont camp the day after the occurrence. Neither 
Stockton nor Fremont mentions this fact. ^ 

The Fremont Battalion, now having nothing further to do 
at Couenga (or Cahuenga) , proceeded to Los Angeles, where 
they arrived January 14th. Fremont, having pledged his 
services originally to Stockton, first waited upon him as 
governor and commander-in-chief, and a little later he 
called on General Kearny. That painful episode of the 
conquest, the controversy between Kearny on the one hand, 
and Stockton and Fremont on the other, was growing. The 
question involved was a technical military question ; namely 
as to which officer was actually commander-in-chief of all the 
forces — Kearny or Stockton. Kearny had received special 
orders to conquer California and establivsh a government. 
So, claimed Stockton, had he, and he also claimed that 
Kearny's instructions were obsolete, that they never would 
have been given if the Government had anticipated that the 
entire country would have been conquered and held, as it 
was, by himself. He maintained also, that had it not been 
for his help, Kearny would not have been able to escape 
at the battle of San Pascual, but he did not state that but 
for the mistaken news of the establishment of peace in 
California, Kearny would have had with him two hundred 
more well-equipped dragoons, and that with this force the 
Mexicans would have been unable to compete. 

Stockton's first contention, that the Government would 
not have given the order it gave to Kearny had it understood 

' Bigelow in his Memoir of John Charles Fremont states that had it not 
been for this treaty a predatory warfare would have run on for an indefinite 
time, but there is little evidence of this. The Mexicans were quite as ready to 
stop as the Americans were to have them. 



Kearny vs. Stockton 373 

the situation, was an admission that Kearny's orders were 
actually paramount, as indeed they were later in date than 
Stoekton's. His second contention, that he had conquered 
California before Kearny's arrival, is not borne out by the 
facts, as the only real battle of the whole conquest was 
fought by Kearny quite unexpectedly, with jaded men and 
horses, and therefore at a disadvantage. Had he been 
expecting a warlike reception, he certainly would have 
halted for recuperation, before plunging into the fray. For 
many reasons he had waived the question of authority till 
after the settlement of the war, but now he again took up the 
subject, and insisted on the recognition of his supremacy. 
The conquest had been largely accomplished in the second 
stage; all resistance of any consequence occurred after 
Kearny was on the ground. 

Stockton maintained that he was as independent of 
Kearny as Kearny was of him and that the California 
Battalion, which he had raised and organised, rightfully 
subject to his orders, was independent of General Kearny; 
that Kearny at any time had the power to direct Fremont 
to leave Stockton's command, and report to him for orders. 
Perhaps the trouble actually lay in the indefiniteness of the 
instructions from the seat of government. At any rate it 
was a technical question. Fremont decided to stand by 
Stockton with whom he had been advantageously working 
in complete harmony, and by whom he was named for 
governor, and he therefore refused to submit, when on 
January 16, 1847, Brigadier- General Kearny, directed him 
to suspend execution of orders received from Commodore 
Stockton.^ The Colonel replied by letter that he had found 
Stockton in possession of the country as early as July, i S46, 

• General Sherman in his Memoirs says General Kearny was regarded as 
the rightful commander, though Fremont issued orders in defiance of him; but 
Sherman was a West Point lieutenant at that time and in connection with 
Frdmont there is no doubt that the testimony of West Point men is somewhat 
prejudiced. I have arrived at this conclusion very reluctantly. 



374 Fremont and '49 

received from him a commission, and he continued, "I feel, 
therefore, with great deference to your professional and per- 
sonal character, constrained to say that, until you and 
Commodore Stockton adjust between yourselves the ques- 
tion of rank, where I respectfully think the difference belongs, 
I shall have to report and receive orders, as heretofore, from 
the Commodore." The letter, of which this was an im- 
portant part, General Kearny advised Fremont to take back 
and destroy, saying that he was willing to forget it, and 
feeling that it would be ruinous to Fremont's career, but the 
counsel was not heeded. The young Colonel was apparently 
right in the matter, but subordinate officers are not expected 
or permitted in military discipline to instruct their superiors. 
The orders from the Secretary of War to Kearny read: 
"These troops, and such as may be organised in California, 
will be under your command," which was called to the 
attention of Fremont, but he nevertheless decided to adhere 
to Stockton as his commander-in-chief under the circum- 
stances, the theory being that technically he and his Califor- 
nia Battalion had been and still were in the naval service, 
imder Stockton. ^ 

For a period of about fifty days, from January i6, 1847, 
Colonel Fremont was recognised everywhere in California as 
Governor, under Stockton's appointment. Kearny went up 
to Monterey, and in March Fremont thought he had dis- 
covered signs of another outbreak which he believed should 
be immediately reported to the General. H. H. Bancroft 
declares: "These alarms were invented later as an excuse for 
disobeying Kearny's orders."^ But it seems somewhat un- 
reasonable to suppose that Fremont would make such a 
tremendous effort as he did in the long ride to be described, 
merely to inaugurate, or cover up, insubordination. At the 

' The famous Mormon Battalion came in about this time under Colonel 
P. St. John Cooke, via New Mexico. See Cooke's book The Conquest of New 
Mexico and California. Putnam's, 1878. 

' H. H. Bancroft, Pacific States, vol. xxii., p. 442. 



A Flying Ride 375 

same time one may ask, "Why was it necessary for him to 
carry the news in person?" He writes, "I made a most ex- 
traordinary ride to give information to prevent an insur- 
rection. The only thing, it would seem, that I came for 
in that interview, was to insult General Kearny, and to 
offer my resignation; and he [pretends he] docs not even 
know what I went for. Certainly the public service, to say 
nothing of myself as an officer, required a different kind of 
reception from the one I received."' 

The immediate trouble seems partly to have arisen from 
General Kearny's insisting that Colonel Mason should re- 
main through the interview, on the ground that he was the 
officer appointed to succeed to command in Cahfornia after 
the approaching departure of General Kearny. The situa- 
tion was antagonistic. Kearny finally gave Fremont a 
limited time in which to declare himself as to obeying the 
General's orders, and after an hour's consideration he 
returned agreeing to obey. He was then directed to report 
at Monterey at the earliest possible moment. Of the 
impending insurrection at Los Angeles nothing more is 
heard. ^ 

The great ride which culminated at Monterey in this 
unsatisfactory interview was one of the most remarkable on 
record for speed and distance. Few men would have the 
endurance necessary to accomplish such a feat, but Fremont 
was a man of iron. At dawn, March 22, 1847, he rode out of 
Los Angeles accompanied by his devoted friend Don Jesus 
Pico, like all Califomians of that day a superb horseman full 
of endurance, and by the equally devoted coloured man 
Jacob Dodson, now, by his long experience, the equal of 
a Califomian in riding and lasso-throwing. Besides their 

* Fremont's Defence. See also Bigclow's Life, p. 395. 

*The cause of the possible insurrection was the approach of the Mormon 
Battalion, the issuing of proclamations incompatible with the treaty of 
Cahuenga, and several other things. See Frdmont's Defence — Bigclow's Life, 
p. 287. 



Z1^ Fremont and '49 

three mounts they drove before them six other horses in 
good condition, all unshod, and from time to time (about 
every twenty miles), Dodson or Pico would rope fresh horses 
from the free band to relieve the tired mounts. Changing 
saddles was but the work of a few seconds, and off they sped 
again. By night of this first day they had made 120 miles, 
over mountains and valleys, part of the way by the Rincon, 
the precarious path along the coast, possible only at low 
tide, and they slept beyond Santa Barbara at the ranch 
of Seiior Robberis. The second day the distance covered 
was 135 miles, over the mountains where the Battalion had 
been so furiously beaten down by the terrible storm described 
by Bryant, and they counted the skeletons of fifty horses 
that had succumbed on that day of exposure and suffering. 
Sunset found them at Captain Dana's place taking 
supper; and the home of Pico, San Luis Obispo, was reached 
by nine in the night. Here a warm welcome met Fremont 
for his clemency to Pico in the matter of the parole, and it 
was eleven o'clock the next morning before they were again 
in the saddle, with eight fresh horses and a Spanish boy for 
herder, and riding for Monterey. Seventy miles to their 
credit brought them to a halt for the night in the valley of 
the Salinas, where they were barred from sleep by a number 
of grizzly bears prowling near and frightening the horses. 
Fremont was for shooting them but Pico said no, and he 
shouted at them something in Spanish when they forthwith 
retired! But a large fire was then built, breakfast was pre- 
pared, and at break of day the last stretch of the road to 
Monterey was taken at a fine pace, the ninety miles being 
covered by three in the afternoon (March 25th) making a 
grand total in jour days of 420 miles. Fremont, that 
evening, had the interview, with General Kearny, above 
referred to, which H. H. Bancroft regards as the "turning 
point" in the Kearny-Fremont affair. The next day, at 
four in the afternoon, the party started on the return to Los 
Angeles and they made 40 miles. The following day 120 



The Duel 377 

miles more were put between them and Monterey, and with 
130 miles then on each of the two suecccding days, the 
Colonel and his companions rode into Los Angeles on the 
ninth day after his start from there; a total journey of 840 
miles over rough country in 76 actual riding hours by the 
use of 17 horses. To test one of them Fremont rode him 
without change for 130 miles in 24 hours. The famous 
ride from Ghent to Aix, immortalised by Browning, was 
barely more than the least one of these eight days of Fremont. 
Browning missed an opportunity. Riding with a herd of 
loose horses running ahead from which the lasso any moment 
can bring one a fresh mount is highly exhilarating. I tried 
it once, with 25 horses, for some 300 miles across Utah, but 
I was not bent on saving Aix or even Los Angeles. 

Another excitement about this time was a difference 
which arose between Fremont and Colonel Mason. Mason's 
presence at the Monterey interview with Kearny had been 
distasteful to Fremont, and at Los Angeles the latter 
resented the commands of Mason concerning some horses 
which Fremont had been ordered to produce, whereupon 
Mason is reported to have exclaimed: "None of your inso- 
lence, or I will put you in irons." Fremont concluded that 
Mason was trying to force him into a challenge, and this 
accordingly followed under date of April 14, 1847. But 
Mason had to go to Monterey about that time and Kearny, 
learning the situation, forbade the duel in a letter to each of 
the principals which stated that "the necessity of preserving 
tranquillity in California, imperiously requires that the 
meeting above referred to should not take place at this time, 
and in this country, and you are hereby officially directed 
to proceed no further in this matter." The duel, therefore, 
did not come off at this, or any other time, through a series 
of adverse, but fortunate, occurrences. Fremont and his 
friends then charged that Mason was trying to avoid a 
meeting, though originally they ascribed to him a fierce 
desire for a duel. Mason was an able officer of fine character, 



378 Fremont and '49 

and it is not likely that he either sought or evaded the duel 
in the beginning, ^ 

New instructions were presently received from Washing- 
ton by both Stockton and Kearny, which unequivocally 
settled the matter of superiority in favour of Kearny. 
Stockton was instructed to relinquish the entire control 
to Colonel Mason or to General Kearny, "if the latter 
arrive before you have done so," and Kearny was directed 
to employ Colonel Fremont "in such manner as will render 
his services most available to the public interest" in case 
he desired to remain. Fremont, however, now that his hopes 
and desires had been thwarted, wished to return to the 
States at his own expense without waiting for anyone, as he 
believed he could travel more quickly, but permission to do 
this was withheld, and he was ordered to join Kearny with 
his topographical corps for the return trip which Kearny 
informed him would begin at Sutter's on the i6th of June, 
his letter from camp near that place being dated the 14th. 
Fremont was already at Sutter's. 

John Bigelow states that Fremont was treated on this 
overland journey with deliberate disrespect, though the 
Colonel did not travel directly with Kearny.^ Accompanied 
by William N. Loker and nineteen of the men of his third 
expedition, and some servants, he kept apart, making sepa- 
rate camps each night. The route was over Donner Pass, 
and there Kearny directed the burial of the remains of some 
of the unfortunate Donner party which had met disaster, 
as previously noted, in the winter of 1846-47. By the middle 
of July they passed Fort Hall on the Oregon Trail, Fremont's 
position a contrast to that on his former visit. Bigelow says : 

' For the letters exchanged in this affair see Bigelow's Life of Fremont, pp. 
205 et seq. 

^ For a statement in favour of General Kearny, see General Stephen 
W. Kearny and the Conquest of California (1846-7), a paper read before the 
Historical Society of S. California, Feb. 6, 191 1, by Valentine Mott Porter, 
Vice-Pres. Missouri Histor. Soc, Los Angeles, Annual Pubs, of the Hist. Soc. 
of S. Calif., vol. viii., 191 1. 



Under Arrest 379 

His achievements and rai)id promotion had awakened the 
jealousy of certain sordid hearts and narrow minds, and Hkc 
Columbus, instead of being permitted to continue his researches 
in the vast region which he had first brouglit within the reach 
of science, he was required to come home and defend himself 
from the attacks of men who had just sense enough to envy 
his successes without the ability to achieve them.' 

There can be no doubt that the treatment he was now to 
receive was an irreparable setback to the brilliant career of 
Fremont. Had the "mutiny" matter been more lightly 
treated, as it easily could have been, he would have con- 
tinued under government auspices the admirable explora- 
tions and surveys he had so auspiciously inaugurated. But 
the Fates willed it otherwise; they continually dashed the 
cup of success from his lips. On August 226., the two caval- 
cades reached Fort Leavenworth, and here Kearny ordered 
Fremont to arrange all his affairs, which being performed he 
"will consider himself under arrest, and will repair to Wash- 
ington City and report himself to the Adjutant-General of 
the Army." Proceeding under arrest, he briefly halted in 
St. Louis where a public dinner was tendered him by the 
citizens. Under the circumstances he was forced to decline, 
and he continued on his way to Washington where he 
arrived the i6th of September, 1847. Learning of the 
serious illness of his mother he secured leave of absence, and 
hastened south. Again the Fates were imkind to him. He 
was too late. His mother died at Aiken, South Carolina, a 
few hours before he reached her home. 

The citizens of Charleston purchased a specially designed 
and elaborately wrought sword and presented it to Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Fremont as a "memorial of their high ap- 
preciation of the gallantry and science he has displayed in 
his services in Oregon and California." A gold mounted 
belt was presented by the ladies of the city. 

* Life of Fremont, p. 214. 



38o Fremont and '49 

On leaving Washington he had paused long enough- to 
write (September 17th) to the Adjutant-General saying 
among other things: "' *^^ ' , "" * - 

I wish a full trial and a speedy one. The charges against me 
by Brigadier- General Kearny, and the subsidiary accusations 
made against me in newspapers when I was not in this country, 
impeach me in all the departments of my conduct (military, 
civil, political, and moral) while in California, and, if true, would 
subject me to be cashiered and shot under the rules and articles 
of war, and to infamy in public opinion. It is my intention to 
meet these charges in all their extent.^ 

On the 26. day of November, 1847, the trial began. Cap- 
tain John F. Lee, of the Ordnance Department, was ap- 
pointed judge-advocate, and Senator Benton and William 
Carey Jones conducted the defence. Lieutenant-Colonel 
Fremont was charged with: (i) Mutiny from January 17, 
1847, to the 9th day of May following, both dates inclusive; 
(2) disobedience of the la'wrful command of a superior officer ; 
and (3) conduct to the prejudice of good order and military 
discipline. Before the Court Fremont declared: "I con- 
sider these difificulties in California to be a comedy — (very 
near being a tragedy) — of three errors: first, in the faulty 
order sent out from this place ; next, in the unjustifiable pre- 
tensions of General Kearny; thirdly, in the conduct of the 
government in sustaining these pretensions, and the last of 
these errors I consider the greatest of the three." On the 
31st day of January, 1848, the court rendered a verdict of 
guilty on each and all of the charges, and Lieutenant-Colonel 
Fremont of the Mounted Rifles, U. S. A., was sentenced to 
dismissal from the army. ^ 

* Life of Fremont, Bigelow, p. 218. 

* For details of the trial, see, U. S. Adjutant-General's Office, Proceedings 
of the General Court-Martial iti the Case of Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, 1847, 
Washington, 1848, 30th Congress, ist Session, Senate Ex. Doc. 33. Also 
John Bigelow's Life of Fremont, pp. 222 et seq. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE FOURTH EXPEDITION 

Asking too much of the Colonel — Justice Blind — Reinstatement and Resigna- 
tion — The Map and the Geographical Memoir — Frdmont versus Wilkes — 
A Railway to the Pacific — The Great Event of 1848 — Marshall and his 
Gold at Sutter's Mill — Organising the Fourth Expedition — The March 
into Winter — Snow and Famine — A Hundred Mules Lost — Alas for the 
Men! — Starvation and Death — Disaster — Fremont Reaches Taos. 

JUSTICE is well represented blind ! Even with one eye 
open at this court-martial, never could she have 
arrived at the decision to summarily dismiss from the 
army of the United States, on a technicality created by a 
difference of opinion between two of his superior officers, the 
young, brilliant, indefatigable, efficient, and devoted Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Fremont. Four of the officers of the court 
afterwards admitted "that the oldest officer in the army 
would have been puzzled how to act on the question which 
Mr. Fremont had been called upon by his superior officers 
to decide for them — the question of the relative rank between 
a Commodore and a General."' 

If the American people have tears to shed over this 
injustice, they should let them fall belated upon the grave 
at Piermont. 

"Answer you, Sirs? Do I understand aright? 

Have patience! In this sudden smoke from hell, 
So things disguise themselves, — I cannot see 
My own hand held thus broad before my face 

And know it again. "^ 

» A Year of American Travel, by Jessie Benton Fremont, p. 115. 
•Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book; Caponsacchi. 

381 



382 Fremont and '49 

A reprimand would have been proper; Fremont had not 
refused to act, but simply declined to acknowledge that a 
General had authority over the Commodore to whom he had 
pledged himself long before the General appeared on the 
scene, and it would seem that these technical charges more 
concerned the superiors than they did Fremont, the victim. 
Furthermore, General Kearny stated that he had brought 
but one charge, that of mutiny; that the additional two 
charges were supplied by others. * By whom then, for what 
reason, and by what right were these added? Was it a 
deliberate attempt to break the success of Fremont by the 
West Point element as so often charged by Senator Benton? 
Regretfully I admit, it looks uncomfortably that way. 
Nothing creates enemies within a profession like success and 
Fremont had been highly successful up to this point and 
undoubtedly had evoked jealousy. Benton exclaimed: "He 
had not only entered the army intrusively, according to their 
ideas, that is to say, without passing through West Point, 
but he had done worse: he had become distinguished."^ 
He was a Lieutenant-Colonel at thirty-two! and one of the 
most widely known officers in the American army. 

The majority of the court, realising apparently that the 
sentence was not exactly right, added to the record some 
signed documents recommending clemency on account of 
the "distinguished professional services of the accused pre- 
vious to the transactions for which he has been tried." 
Having swung the club they were not unwilling to put a very 
small plaster on the bruise. The President declined to con- 
firm the verdict on the mutiny charge, but he sustained the 
others, which he believed were "warranted." These were 
the charges which General Kearny himself repudiated and 

' "The charges upon which Col. Fremont is now arraigned are not my 
charges. I preferred a single charge against Lieut.-Col. Fremont. These 
charges on which he is now arraigned have been changed from mine." — 
General Kearny before the court-martial; cited by Benton, Thirty Years, 
vol. ii., p. 716. See also Senate Ex. Doc. 33 — ist Sess. 30th Cong. 

^ Thirty Years, vol. ii., p. 716. 



Resignation 383 

which were supplied for reasons of their own by others not 
in the disagreement at all. But while approving the penalty 
of dismissal, President Polk remitted it because of "previous 
meritorious services . . . and of the recommendations of a 
majority of the court. Lieutenant-Colonel I^>cmont will 
accordingly be released from arrest, will resume his sword, 
and report for duty." 

But Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont was too high spirited, 
and felt the injustice of the sentence too keenly, to accept 
this backhanded kind of reinstatement; therefore, under 
date of February 19, 1848, he sent his formal letter of resigna- 
tion to the Adjutant-General, as he did not feel that he had 
"done anything to merit the finding of the court." The 
President's acceptance was necessar}^ and was delayed, and 
it was not till Fremont wrote again to the Adjutant-General, 
on March 14th, that he received the documents on the 15th 
and was free. In the last analysis, so far as I can discover, 
this man who had been so serviceable to the government as 
a brilliant explorer and resolute soldier, was condemned and 
dismissed from the army because, though a subordinate 
officer, he was not able to establish the status with regard to 
each other, of two of his superiors, when all three were far 
removed from higher authority. If there was any justice 
concealed in this verdict it is certainly hard to find. It is 
possible that had Fremont been of the regular line, instead 
of the Topographical Corps, he might have perceived the 
matter in another light, and have transferred himself on 
order to the Army Chief from the Navy Chief, but in passing 
judgment, we must consider the exceptional conditions as they 
existed, and not as they might have been. The charges and 
the verdict appear to indicate an antagonism on tlic part of 
the line officers to Fremont, and it is not impossible that the 
affair of the howitzer at the time of the start of the second 
expedition may have contributed some resentment not only 
against Fremont but against the whole Benton family, and 
in that way had its influence in these charges and the verdict. 



384 Fremont. and '49 

Before leaving this phase of the Cahfornia conquest, it 
should be emphasised that all the officers concerned worked 
together and continued to do their best regardless of their 
personal differences on the point of rank. Kearny and 
Stockton were aged fifty-two and fifty-one respectively, 
while Fremont as noted was only thirty-two, and therefore 
on account of his youth and inexperience as a line officer, 
and of all the peculiar circumstances, he should have re- 
ceived special consideration in formulating charges against 
him. When all is said, for and against them, the fact re- 
mains that these three men carried the day as to California, 
and established the American arms throughout the land 
with the least possible interference with the inhabitants. 
Certainly Fremont ever after was held in high regard by the 
natives, for his generous treatment, the little damage done 
by his brigade, and his lenient way of dealing with the 
opposing forces at Cahuenga. 

In the readjustment of affairs in California the old 
Missions, the presidios, the pueblos, and the private 
ranchos all required regulation. There was friction at first, 
as it was not easy to tell just what the real laws of Cali- 
fornia were. The American settlers had expected to receive 
grants of land; some had them, but most had not, and 
they were clamouring, but in the midst of their clamour a 
sudden note was sounded by Fate which brought, for the 
time being, more disorder,^ and made California the Ely- 
sium of the World in the minds of thousands in every 
far-off land. Before the Great Event, certain of the old 
Mission farms were to be put on the market, and Fremont, 
before going to Los Angeles early in 1847, arranged with a 
friend to buy one, leaving the money for it. "The friend 
did buy the farm but he bought it for himself."^ This 

' See California, by Royce, chapter iv. 

' Recollections of Elizabeth Benton Fremont, daughter of the Pathfinder 
General John C. Fremont and Jessie Benton Fr6mont, his wife, compiled by 
I. T. Martin. Frederick H. Hitchcock, New York. 1912. 



The Battalion Paid 385 

friend was Larkin/ Again Fremont was thwarted in his 
plans, for the friend, instead of the highly eultivated farm 
where Fremont intended to live, put the money into a large 
Mexican land grant known then as the " Mariposas, " a cat- 
tle range at the moment, containing over 40,000 acres 
(43,386 i^'o^o* or about seventy square miles as eventually 
defined), but soon to become productive of gold. 

But Fremont was not yet quite through in Washington. 
The day after the termination of the court-martial, an in- 
vestigation by the Senate Military Committee was begun 
into the California claims connected with the conquest. 
Among others those of the California Battalion, for pay, 
were presented. Fremont was specially interested in getting 
a proper adjustment for these men, who had laughed at 
Stockton's offer of ten dollars a month, and had relied on 
the justice of the government to receive adequate compensa- 
tion. The claims, at last, were adjusted. During the argu- 
ments before the committee many tributes were paid to 
Fremont. 

On June 5, 1848, the Senate ordered printed twenty 
thousand copies of Fremont's map of Oregon and Upper 
California (Upper meaning here "Alta," comprising the 
country west of the Colorado River, and not the upper part 
of the present State of California), and on the 15th of the 
same month, to accompany the map, a large number of copies 
printed of the Geographical Memoir upon Upper Califor- 
nia. The map, drawn by Charles Preuss "from the sur- 
veys of Captain Fremont and 'other authorities,' was at the 
time of its publication (1848) the most accurate map of that 
region extant."^ These two publications once more ex- 
hibited the fine quality and scientific skill of the young man 
who had just been "broken" by the military contingent 

* Letter of Fremont to J. R. Snyder, Dec. ii, 1849. Cited in Bigelow's 
Life of Fremont, p. 392. At this time Fremont had not seen it except in a 
general way when pursuing Indians on one occasion; see p. 304, this volume. 

•Warren's Memoir, Pacific Railway Reports, vol. xi., p. 48. 

25 



386 Fremont and '49 

of the government. The engineer branch of the army lost 
its most distinguished representative. The surveys of the 
Western country would have developed far more rapidly 
than they did, if his enthusiastic services had been retained. 
About this time the controversy with Captain Wilkes 
took place, precipitated by a letter from Senator Benton to the 
National Intelligencer, regarding an error in the location of 
the California coast line previously noted in that paper. 
Benton stated that the error had been corrected by Fremont 
on the map about to be published by order of the Senate. 
An extensive correspondence in public prints between Wilkes 
and Fremont resulted.^ Wilkes thought that Fremont 
meant to reflect on the accuracy of the topographic work 
accomplished by the exploring expedition under his com- 
mand, but Fremont disclaimed any such intention and 
pointed out that Wilkes had misinterpreted the original let- 
ter of Benton. Fremont at last declared: "I feel warranted 
in saying that his [Wilkes's] entire surveys in Oregon and 
California, as far as they follow his own observations, are 
erroneously laid down in his published works. " As a matter 
of fact none of these early maps, Fremont's as well as the 
others, were entirely accurate as we understand accuracy 
to-day. They were reconnaissance maps only, and as such 
were extremely good. From my own experience I realise 
how difficult it is to do the best topographic and geodetic 
work in a wild, roadless country with few men, no facilities, 
small funds, perhaps without a base line, and with instru- 
ments shaken about for months on pack mules; above all in 
limited time. There is at least one thing to be said in favour 
of Wilkes: he eliminated the Buenaventura River from his 
maps before Fremont succeeded in eliminating it from his 
mind. * 

' See Bigelow's Life of Fremont, chapter xii., for these letters, or the 
National Intelligencer for 1848. 

^ Not from his own observations, however, but from consultation with 
Bonneville, probably with Jedediah Smith, and from Gallatin's maps. 



A Pacific Railway 387 

Senator Benton was obsessed with the idea of a railway 
from St. Louis to California, but the transcontinental rail- 
way scheme was not original with him. A professor in St. 
Joseph's College, Bardstown, Kentucky, one " Colonel" Low, 
proposed the matter as early as 1831. The trustees de- 
clared him insane and vacated his seat,' In 1834, S. K. 
Barlow broached the same thing, and in 1845, Asa Whitney 
presented a memorial to Congress asking for the grant of 
a strip of land across the continent for the purpose. His 
efforts extended over several years. William Gilpin, who 
had accompanied Fremont's second expedition to Oregon, and 
was afterwards so prominent in the West, was also an early 
advocate of a Pacific railway. 

Fremont was as much interested in the railway scheme 
as Benton or any of the others and he now planned to explore 
a route for such a line; his fourth expedition. His Washing- 
ton affairs being all settled, he determined to carry out the 
project at once. He intended to develop his Mariposa es- 
tate, so his wife was to go by way of Panama, in the spring 
of the next year, 1849, while he would conduct this exploring 
party across country as on his previous journeys. Senator 
Benton expected to accompany his daughter, but finally 
was unable to go. " He wished to know personally the newly 
acquired country, its people, and its needs. . . . But not 
even my father," says Mrs. Fremont, "foresaw . . . the 
shameful injustice of our government in disregarding its 
treaty stipulations, and despoiling them [the Californians]."^ 

Before Fremont got started on his railway survey the 
"Great Event" occurred in California that changed the 
whole situation, and like so much else at that period it was 
connected with the genial and generous Captain Sutter. 
Sutter had determined to build a grist-mill, and to secure 
lumber for that and for buildings demanded by the growing 
population he concluded to first put up a sawmill. A man 

' H. H. Bancroft, California, vol. iv., p. 223. 

'A Year of American Travel, by Jessie Benton Frdmont, p. 14. 



388 Fremont and '49 

named James Wilson Marshall, who had been in the Bear 
Flag affair, a millwright, arranged a partnership with Sutter 
to prospect for the mill site and to build the mill. It was 
necessary to find a place where the mill site and the timber 
were together and also were easy of access. This he suc- 
ceeded in finding in Coloma Valley on the American River, 
forty-five miles from the Fort, engaged men to work, and 
soon the mill was in progress. 

Marshall himself was occupied mainly on the machinery 
part of the work, but in superintending he generally raised 
the gate of the tail-race every night to let the water cut out 
what it would and thus deepen the channel, and in the 
mornings he shut off the water and walked along the race 
to see what was best for the day's work of the Indian gang 
employed on the digging. 

One morning in January [the 24th, 1848], it was a clear, cold 
morning [he states] ... as I was taking my usual walk along 
the race after shutting off the water, my eye was caught with the 
glimpse of something shining in the bottom of the ditch. There 
was about a foot of water running then. I reached my hand 
down and picked it up; it made my heart thump for I was 
certain that it was gold. The piece was about half the size and 
shape of a pea.^ 

Presently he found more. He showed it to his men and all 
kept an eye out for gold, in a few days picking up about three 
ounces. Going down to the Fort, Marshall showed the metal 
to Sutter, who pronounced it really gold, but they thought it 
impure, They then tested its specific gravity and proved 
that it was gold without alloy. Jedediah Smith had found 
gold, probably on this same river, in 1827. 

They endeavoured to keep the matter quiet, not thinking 
the deposit extensive, but a number of ex-soldiers were about 
and they got knowledge of the great discovery. The news 

' From "Marshall's Own Account of the Gold Discovery." Century Maga- 
zine, vol. xix., N. S., p. 537. See also "The Discovery of Gold in California," 
p. 525, same volume, by J. S. Hittell. 



St. Louis Helps 3«9 

travelled fast. In a short time everybody that could get a 
pan, shovel, and hoc was prospecting. One find followed 
another rapidly and the news went round the world as 
all now know. Multitudes in far-off lands turned their faces 
towards Sutter's Mill. 

The people of St. Louis where Fremont repaired in 
1848 to organise his fourth expedition took a special 
interest in him. They admired his pluck, determination, 
and skill, and they had known him now since the time, 
ten years before, when he had been introduced by Nicol- 
let. He was also the son-in-law of their famous Senator, 
and the husband of the brilliant and much-admired Jessie 
Benton, Above all they were profoundly interested in the 
railway scheme to the Pacific. St. Louis, then being the 
only important place in the West, naturally knew more and 
cared more about the new territory than any other city. 
Consequently Fremont had no trouble in securing the loan 
of funds for this fresh expedition which would have no 
government support. Robert Campbell, himself personally 
familiar with the Rocky Mountain region, Thornton 
Grimsley, and O. D. Filley were among his chief sup- 
porters, the latter furnishing a large part of the camp 
equipment. The name of Filley is known to all who have 
used a "Dutch Oven" in a western camp, for he being a 
manufacturer, his name in large letters used to decorate the 
iron covers. Doctor Engleman also aided in a scientific 
way as he had done on the previous expeditions. 

While Fremont was crossing the continent, Mrs. Fremont 
was to make the journey to their new home b}' way of the Isth- 
mus of Panama, but first she accompanied her husband in Oc- 
tober, 1848, as far as his " starting point, the Delaware Indian 
reservation on the frontier of Missouri [near Kansas City], 
to return when he left, and remain at home in Washington 
until my time came to start in March. " By home she meant 
her father's house where she always lived, being as much a 
part of the family as the others, when her husband was on his 



390 • Fremont and '49 

exploring trips, and he had been gone about five years out 
of the eight of their married Hfe, After the farewell, October 
19th, Mrs. Fremont stopped the night at the Agency at- 
tended by her coloured servant, "Aunt Kitty." They were 
disturbed by the cries of a mother-wolf hunting her cubs, 
which Major Cummings, the agent, had killed. Mrs. Fre- 
mont, distraught and nervous, was unable to sleep, but the 
servant building the fire on the hearth, repose came, once 
more to be broken by Fremont himself, who, from his camp 
ten miles off, had ridden back for another hour with his 
wife. A ten-mile stretch was nothing for the man who rode 
that time to Monterey, and Kitty brewed a cup of tea for his 
good cheer. "And so,'' writes Mrs. Fremont, "with our 
early tea for a stirrup cup, ' he gave his bridle rein a shake, ' 
and we went our ways, one into the midwinter snows of 
untracked mountains, the other to the long sea voyage 
through the tropics. ' ' It was not only the sea voyage for her, 
but a camping trip across the Isthmus of Panama, there being 
as yet no railway. 

On the road from the Agency to Bent's Fort, Fremont 
followed the "line of the Southern Kansas (the true Kan- 
sas)," and believed that this valley afforded the best approach 
to the mountains. Both he and Benton had in mind the 
crossing of the Missouri about at Kansas City for the great 
transcontinental railway from St. Louis, and consequently 
they looked for an approach to and a crossing of the Rocky 
Mountains much farther south than the pass by which the 
Union Pacific actually went over. There was much skepti- 
cism in the East as to the possibility of carrying a line of 
railway across the several ranges of mountains, especially 
the Rocky Mountains. It was Fremont's task to find a 
practicable road, and for this purpose he mistakenly chose 
winter, "in order that all the obstacles which could exist 
to the construction of the road might be known and fully 
determined." 

His plan was to follow west, from the head of the Rio 



The Plan of Route 391 

Grande, as near the thirty-seventh parallel as possible, and 
he believed that he could find a good pass over the Sierra 
between thirty-seven and thirty-eight, that is to say be- 
tween, about. Walker Pass and Mono Lake. A large portion 
of this region was unexplored even by trappers ; the canyoncd 
Colorado River cut through it, which neither he nor anyone 
else knew anything about. A portion was not explored till 
1872 when a party I was with went into it from the south- 
west, for the purpose. From the head of the Rio Grande, 
about longitude 107°, to the west line of the High Plateaus of 
Utah, about 112° 30', between the thirty-seventh and thirty- 
eighth parallels, we now know there lies some of the most 
difficult country to traverse within the limits of the United 
States. Even to-day it is formidable. And this was the 
tract which Fremont was now heading for. 

"Then Fremont, passing not alone; beside him, silent, 
dim, unguessed, 
Unheralded, to claim her own, the Soul of the 
Awakening West! "^ 

By the 17th of November, 1848, he arrived at Bent's 
Fort, and went south to the "Big Timbers" to visit Fitz- 
patrick, who was stationed there as Indian agent, doing his 
work well, to the gratification of Fremont, Here the report 
came that the snow was deeper in the mountains than either 
Indians or whites had ever known it to be at this season, and 
all predicted a severe winter. Fremont should have heeded 
this and deferred his crossing of the unknown country till 
it could be reconnoitred under more favourable conditions, 
but having often conquered the uncertain he was not 
daunted. There are always so many reasons advanced by 
outside parties to show that a new route is impossible, that 
explorers after a time discount to a large degree what is told 
them and go ahead on their own understanding. Most 
people speak without knowledge and are willingly dis- 

»Sharlot M.Hall. 



392 Fremont and '49 

couraged. Therefore Fremont confidently proceeded to- 
wards the great white barrier gleaming before him. To 
emphasise the season and the possibilities, heavy snow fell 
upon them as they advanced. 

But success had been his in crossing the Sierra in winter; 
why should it not attend him now? There was a difference, 
however, between crossing a mountain range to descend 
into a mild, inhabited country, and crossing one beyond 
which lay an elevated labyrinth of plateaus, canyons, and 
more mountains, unpeopled and trackless. Fremont, always 
energetic, resolutely kept on his way, the party being roused 
each morning at daylight, and by the time the sun was rising 
the cavalcade was on the march. Yet in one of his letters 
he relapsed just for a moment to say to his father-in-law 
that breakfasting in the open before daylight with the ther- 
mometer ranging from 12° to 18° was "a somewhat startling 
change from the pleasant breakfast table" in the warm 
house. " I think that I shall never cross the continent again 
except at Panama, I do not feel the pleasure that I used to 
have in those labours, as they remain inseparably connected 
with painful circumstances due mostly to them. It needs 
strong incitement to undergo the hardships and self-denial of 
this kind of life, and as I find I have these no longer, I will 
drop into a quiet life. "^ This is the first note which he had 
permitted himself to express of despondency over the mili- 
tary injustice he had received, but he was not yet to drop 
into that quiet life. 

In a few days they were at Pueblo, and from there on the 
snow grew deeper and progress became more and more diffi- 
cult. There were no Carson and Fitzpatrick to lend their 
experience now. In their place he had their comrade Godey, 
a most excellent frontiersman who had been with him before, 
Taplin, King, and "Old" Bill Williams, a dead shot, who 
was said to know the Rocky Mountains better than any 

I Letter to Benton from Bent's Fort, Nov. 17, 1848, cited by Bigelow, 
Life of Fremont, p. 359. 



Micajah McGchee 393 

living man except Jim Bridger. Williams in early life had 
been a Methodist preacher in Missouri, and was warm- 
hearted, brave, and generous. He had great facility in learn- 
ing languages and consequently spoke Ute fluently as well 
as other Indian tongues. At this time he was past middle 
age, but he was hale and vigorous. 

Preuss as topographer was again with Fremont and there 
were thirty-one men besides, one of them Micajah McGchee, 
who kept a diary which was published by his brother in 
1891, and furnishes the only account by one of the party 
I know of aside from that of Fremont, who, however, never 
published a detailed statement. ' No latitudes or longitudes 
being available it is difficult to trace with exactness the route 
followed. 

At Pueblo, Bill Williams was engaged. He went reluc- 
tantly, believing the passage of the mountains at this season 
very doubtful, yet he concluded they could get through, 
though not without considerable suffering. McGchee speaks 
of entering the first mountains, November 26, 1848, by 
" Hard Scrabble. " Williams was leading up the valley of the 
creek still called by that name, which enters the Arkansas 
some eighteen or twenty miles above Pueblo, and by which 
they surmounted the Wet Mountain Range, and went over 
into Wet Mountain Valley. It would seem to have been 
desirable to cut across country from Pueblo to the foot of the 
range at the mouth of the canyon of this creek, but on Fre- 
mont's map accompanying his Memoirs, the trail is indicated 
from the mouth of the creek. The company all travelled on 
foot, the saddle animals being laden with 130 bushels of 
shelled corn. 

The first day's journey in the mountains was eight miles, 

' General Fremont did not complete the second volume of his Memoirs, 
but from his notes Mrs. Fremont and their younger son compiled it. The 
manuscript was sent to the Chicago firm that was to bring it out, but it never 
was printed. A rough draft is extant but I have been unable to consult it. 
For McGehee's story, "Rough Times in Rough Places," see Century Magazine, 
vol. xix., N. S., p. 771. 



394 Fremont and '49 

and from the camp at this place several men climbed with 
McGehee to a high point to take a last look at the snow- 
covered plains stretching white to the eastward. The cold 
was intense, the thermometer registering zero even in the 
middle of the day. Successively they travelled through 
White Mountain Valley and Wet Mountain Valley, accord- 
ing to McGehee, valleys lying between the Wet Mountain 
and the Sangre de Cristo ranges. The order should be re- 
versed, the "White Mountain" Valley being the present 
Huerfano Valley, just east of the Sierra Blanca (or White 
Mountains, Blanca Peak, 14,390 feet), which is the lower end 
of the Sangre de Cristo. Three passes open here to the west 
across the lofty crest of the Sangre de Cristo, the direction 
in which Fremont must go in order to reach the Rio Grande, 
as he had planned. McGehee says they went over by 
Roubideau's Pass, which is the middle one, the upper being 
Williams or Sandy Hill Pass, and the lower the Sangre de 
Cristo Pass. To-day the Williams is called Sandhill Pass, 
Roubideau's, Mosca Pass (or Musca, its original Spanish 
name), while the Sangre de Cristo name has not changed. 
Another developed later north of Sandhill called Music Pass. 
There were old Spanish trails through the passes, this being 
a region long well known to the Spaniards living lower down 
on the Rio Grande. 

McGehee declares the cold became so great that the 
mercury of the thermometer often contracted altogether 
into the bulb. A number of the men were soon more or less 
frozen, the animals became exhausted; finally they began to 
give out one by one, dropping down in the trail, and their 
packs were transferred to saddle animals. The breath of the 
men, as in the arctic regions, froze on their faces ; they could 
hardly speak from the stiffness caused by the ice. Men and 
mules were like white spectres, floundering and wallowing 
along through the deepening snow. After crossing the 
Sangre de Cristo by Roubideau Pass the staggering caravan 
came down into the San Luis Valley (7000 feet) (not the 



Dead Mules and Dying 395 

Grand River Valley as McGchce states), and Williams then 
led on across the San Luis Valley almost due west, reaching 
the Rio Grande, December 11, 1848, about where the town 
of Del Norte now stands, near the mouth of the canyon. 
The river was frozen over, but there were plenty of cotton- 
woods and willows for fuel. 

Immediately before them now was the great San Juan 
Range, its peaks rising to 14,000 feet, the passage for which 
Bill Williams ajjparently was heading. Waggon Wheel Gap, 
having an altitude above sea level of 8390 feet, with the 
real pass beyond much higher. Fremont says: "One of 
the highest, most rugged and impracticable of all the 
Rocky Mountain ranges, inaccessible to trappers and 
hunters even in the summer time." In two or three days 
they were once more in the midst of huge mountains and 
deep gorges, under mighty precipices, or skirting lofty crags. 
Occasionally a mule would miss its footing and tumble oflf 
the trail. Daily the obstacles increased. Many of the men 
were frostbitten. Blizzards smote them till they were 
blinded by the dense and furious clouds of finely pulverised 
snow driven on the gale; and the snow fell steadily. Dead 
mules were lying about the fires, frozen to death. Along the 
trail w^ere strewn packs, pack-saddles, baggage, and dead 
mules. Finally they reached an altitude of 12,000 feet. All 
the corn had been consumed and only on the most exposed 
ridges was any grass to be had. There the fierce wind had 
blown all snow awa3^ A path was beaten down by mauls 
to get the animals along for the snow was too deep for any 
progress without this labour, nor could the animals descend 
from the bleak, exposed heights: the snow was too deep. 
They were obliged to remain there subject to the roaring 
blasts with a zero edge. No warm-blooded animal could 
long withstand that. It was nearly impossible to travel at 
all. In one attempt they were beaten back in half a mile and 
Bill Williams was nearly frozen to death while on the way, 
sitting on his mule. Noses, faces, feet, fingers, and ears were 



396 Fremont and '49 

partly frozen on many of the men. At times a mule would 
drop down under its pack and freeze to death. The surviving 
mules began to eat the pack ropes and the rawhide lariats 
till nothing was left to tie them with and prevent their wild 
wandering about in search of food. They ate the blankets 
put over them at night ; they ate the pads and rigging off 
the pack-saddles ; they ate each other's manes and tails, and 
then began to eat the blankets covering the men. They 
became like ravenous wolves. 

The air was so rare that breathing was difficult; the 
thermometer (F.) showed 20° below zero. They finally 
succeeded in crossing the crest or divide and camped in the 
edge of the timber below. It is not possible with the avail- 
able data to tell where the crossing was. By December 17th, 
it was found impossible to advance. Five days, McGehee 
states, were spent in this camp because they simply could 
not move. Then Fremont decided to work back to the San 
Luis Valley, and on the 226. of December the retreat was 
begun. The remainder of the mules huddled together for 
warmth and from time to time as they froze "one would 
be seen to tumble down and the snow would cover him." 
It took a week to move two miles over the crest to a little 
stream leading to the main river. The provisions were 
almost gone and they began to eat the carcasses of the mules. 
Finding it would not be possible to save any, they also began 
to kill and eat those that had not yet frozen. 

"The courage of the men," says Fremont, "failed fast; 
in fact I have never seen men so soon discouraged by mis- 
fortune as we were on this occasion." But he excepted 
Godey, King, and Taplin of his former party. Yet could 
conditions have been more disheartening? However, it was 
hardly worse than crossing the Sierra, except for the greater 
cold. There is a great difference in the way men meet 
hardship and it is not necessarily the muscular man who 
triumphs. "Nerve" as well as muscle is required. 

On Christmas day a party of four selected volunteers, 



Search for the ReHef 397 

King, Croitzfeldt, Brackenridge, and Bill Williams, was sent 
to the Rio Grande settlements, to Taos, to secure mules and 
provisions, while the remaining men moved the baggage 
down to the valley. Sixteen days were allowed for them to 
go and return. Days and days passed and no news came. 
While moving baggage Proue froze to death beside the trail. ' 
The others passed and repassed in their trips to get the 
baggage down, but no one dared to halt long enough, remarks 
McGehee, to "perform the useless rite of burial." 

At last the whole remaining party succeeded once more 
in camping on the Rio Grande, but still no word came from 
the longed-for rescuers. It was thought they had been de- 
stroyed by Indians, or had lost their way and perished. 
Finally Fremont himself with Preuss, Godey, Godey's 
nephew Theodore, and his special attendant Saunders, taking 
a small portion of the scant balance of provisions, started 
to investigate, intending to push on to the settlements, and 
send back supplies. The men remaining had provisions for 
"two or three meals, more or less; and about five pounds of 
sugar to each man." They were instructed, saj^s McGehee, 
if they did not hear from Fremont in a stated time, to come 
on down the Rio Grande. McGehee also says Fremont told 
them that if they wished to see him they must be in a hurry 
about it as he was going to Cahfornia. Fremont in his letter 
from Taos, February 6, 1849, says they were to follow him 
after three or four days when the occupation he had directed 
would have been finished, and in fact two days after he left 
they had finished packing the baggage to the river; the last 
provisions were gone and they were living on parfleche (raw- 
hide). Fremont claimed they remained seven days where he 
left them and seems to blame them for it. 

They decided that the only thing for them to do was also 

• Fr6mont was disgusted with Proue's lack of effort to save himself. He 
says, " In a sunshiny day, and having with him means to make a fire, he threw 
his blankets down in the trail and laid there till he froze to death." Bigelow's 
Life, p. 369. Proue was the only one who froze to death. 



398 Fremont and '49 

to hasten down the river. With a handful of sugar for each 
man, some candles, rawhide, etc., they began the terrible 
march down the Rio Grande on the surface of the ice. They 
had not gone far before the Cosumne Indian Manuel, whose 
feet were badly frozen, begged Vincent Haler, the leader, to 
shoot him, and finding Haler would not do it, Manuel turned 
back to the recent camp to die. That day another man, 
Wise, lay down for the last time. At night Carver became 
delirious and cried to his companions to follow him, he had 
a plan by which they might live. He wandered off and was 
not seen by them again. Some of the party were snow- 
blind; an addition of excruciating pain to their famished 
frames and general misery. Then Tabeau and Moran, two 
Frenchmen, died. Food was absolutely exhausted; there was 
not even a bit of rawhide to stew up. The situation was now 
desperate if it had not been so before. No game was to be 
seen ; everjrwhere was a wide sweep of white desolation, and 
beautiful though it is, an unbroken waste of snow encircling 
one for miles in great mountains with not a smoke to be seen 
is in itself somewhat appalling. 

Vincent Haler now declared that it would be best not to 
try to hold together in one party any longer ; everyone should 
go as he pleased and get somewhere if he could. 

The next morning, therefore, with Scott, Martin, Hib- 
bard, Bacon, Ducatel, Rohrer, and the two Indian boys who 
had been with Fremont since his last expedition, Joaquin and 
Gregario, he started on. Two others, Ferguson and Beadle, 
went together, and the remainder, the three Kerns, Cap- 
tain Cathcart, Captain Taplin, Stepperfeldt, Andrews, and 
McGehee, made up the final party, agreeing to stand by each 
other to the end no matter what happened. In this order 
the dismembered expedition continued toward their only 
hope, the settlements far down the river, but one day's 
progress used up some of the men, especially Dr. Kern 
and Andrews, so that they could not proceed, and the party 
received an addition in the person of Rohrer, who had been 



Rescue 399 

unable to keep up with the advance contingent. The 
stronger men now stood by their pledge and refused to leave 
the weaker. They hunted diligently. Two prairie chickens 
and a dead wolf were all they got, this all being divided with 
great exactness. Days went by with no luck. Andrews died. 
One of the men then made a proposition to utilise the body, 
fully admitting the horror of it but claiming it was justifiable, 
but McGehee declared he simply could not entertain the 
thought, and said he would stick it out to the final hour as 
he was, and the others were of his opinion. Then Rohrer 
died. 

Two days more dragged by. About noon of the third 
day, January 25, 1849, a call was suddenly heard in the dis- 
tance. New hope arose. In a few moments Godey came 
riding up. Food was quickly distributed, and a Mexican 
with him immediately prepared some atole, a sort of corn- 
meal gruel. When the men were somewhat comfortable 
Godey told what had happened to Fremont and also to the 
first relief party sent forward. 

On the fifth day after leaving his men Fremont saw an 
Indian on the ice who belonged to a considerable party whose 
trail they had recently observed. They got up to him and 
on learning Fremont's name the yoimg man asked if three 
years before he had exchanged gifts (p. 268) with the Ute 
chief Walker over on the Sevier. On Fremont's replying in 
the afBrmative, he said that chief was his father and he 
would be Fremont's friend. 

The next day a rifle, two blankets, and a promise of other 
presents emphasised the friendship and secured his services 
as guide as well as the use of four horses, and thus fortified, 
Fremont, who never seemed to feel hunger, fatigue, thirst, 
or any other ordinar}^ sensation, was able to proceed with 
more certainty, though not speedily, for the animals were 
thin and feeble. Fremont states that he secured the Indian 
as a guide to "Red River settlement," by which he means a 
small pueblo which was situated at the mouth of a little 



400 Fremont and '49 

tributary called Rio Colorado, entering the Rio Grande from 
the east, about twenty miles north of Taos, and near latitude 
36° 35'. About sunset, the first day of riding the horses, 
the sixth since leaving the men, and the twenty-second since 
the departure of King and the relief party, they discovered a 
smoke and made for it hoping to find the relief party now on 
its return with the provisions. It was indeed the relief party, 
but .they were themselves in dire need of relief, being in 
quite as starving a condition as the other men ; King already 
had died, and Benton states that the other three had fed on 
the body, but neither Fremont nor McGehee mentions this. ' 
Fremont took the three men along, by means of the horses, 
and on January 20, 1849, the tenth evening after leaving his 
party, having now come 160 miles, he rode into the "Red 
River" settlement. His experience proves again the old 
saying, " If you want a thing well done, do it yourself. " Had 
he started for the relief himself instead of the men he sent, 
everyone would have been saved, for Fremont had nerve, 
courage, discretion, sense, and discrimination, although it 
must be admitted that he seems to have lacked judgment 
in the initial movement to cross such mountains in winter. ^ 
McGehee states that the relief party tried to reach Albu- 
querque across the mountains, which seems incredible with 
Taos so much nearer — about half-way — and the river ice to 
travel on. 

The next morning Fremont and Godey went on to Taos. 
Animals and supplies were rapidly gathered and Godey 
immediately went back with Mexican helpers, to rescue the 
remainder of the expedition. Forcing his animals to their 
utmost, travelling every possible hour, he at length discov- 
ered Vincent Haler's camp. Leaving animals and provisions 

' Benton's Thirty Years, vol. ii., p. 719. Fremont refers to it later. 

^ The error, perhaps, lay in trying to cross the San Juan Mountains instead 
of going more northerly into Grand River Valley; but to a man who had 
"bucked" the wilderness for years successfully under all sorts of conditions, 
crossing these mountains in winter with large supplies did not appear 
irrational, and he relied on Williams leading the easiest way. 



The Last of Old Bill 401 

here he hurried on. Next he picked up Scott, sitting snow- 
blind and weak by a fire. He was fed and sent down to 
Haler's camp with a Mexican. Then he came to Hibbard. 
The poor fellow had just died. Taking here a short cut in 
his haste, Godey passed the A^cGehee party without seeing 
them. He next discovered Ferguson and Beadle, the latter 
dead. Ferguson told him of the McGehee party and Godey 
hastened back and found them as related; then he pushed 
once more out on the back trail to help any others he could. 
Tabeau (Sorel) and Moran, devoted friends, were the next 
he met. Both were dead ; Moran in the act of making a fire. 

Manuel, who had turned back in despair to one of the 
camps, was found sitting in the lodge, still alive, and he was 
saved. He reported that Carver had passed by and had 
frozen. Carver, evidently, had lost his mind and did not 
know what he was doing. By the 9th of February all the 
scattered survivors were gathered at the pueblo of Taos, 
New Mexico, and their frightful sufferings were ended. 
Here at Taos, lived Kit Carson, who aided them, and who 
took his old friend Fremont into his house and gave him 
every possible attention and care. 

An attempt was made with fresh animals to secure the 
abandoned baggage, but it led only to the loss of ten or 
twelve more animals, and the matter was temporarily 
abandoned. The snow was five feet deep in the valleys and 
in the mountains absolutely impassable. Almost every- 
thing, except the instruments and one of Fremont's baggage 
trunks, was lost. McGehee states that Dr. Kern and Bill 
Williams in the spring of '49 returned with a company of 
Mexicans to the scene of the disaster to rescue the property, 
and were attacked and killed by either Indians or the 
Mexicans with them, "we never could ascertain which." 

And here ended Fremont's fourth expedition, a disas- 
trous failure, though Fremont asserted that he had seen no 
obstacle, either snow or mountain ranges, at any time, to 

the successful building and operation of a railway, and in 
36 



402 Fremont and '49 

this judgment he was correct, as events have fully, proved.' 
But the unfortunate record of this fourth expedition was 
the death of eleven men, not counting Dr. Kern and Bill 
Williams, killed in the later effort to get the baggage, of 
about one hundred mules, and the loss of practically all 
the property. 

About this time in St. Louis (February 21, 1849), a 
public meeting was held on the subject of a "National Road 
to the Pacific," and a resolution was adopted of thanks to 
"Colonel John C. Fremont, for his intrepid perseverance 
and valuable scientific explorations in the regions of the 
Rocky and California mountains, by which we have been 
furnished with a knowledge of the passes and altitudes of 
these mountains, and are now able to judge of the entire 
practicability of constructing a railroad over them from St. 
Louis to San Francisco, " At the time of this meeting those 
present supposed that Fremont's fourth expedition had 
successfully terminated in California, as he had planned to 
be there by January 8th, whereas he was recuperating in 
the Rio Grande Valley after the collapse of that expedition. 

For the disastrous outcome of the fourth expedition, 
Fremont blamed Bill Williams in leading the party astray. 
"The error of our journey was committed in engaging this 
man. He proved never to have in the least known, or entirely 
to have forgotten, the whole region of the country through 
which we were to pass." But, nevertheless, Williams led 
them from Pueblo, Colorado, by a fairly direct road to the 
turning-back point, on the very line which Fremont had 
proposed to follow. It might have been easier to go from 
Pueblo up the Huerfano and over Sangre de Cristo Pass, 
but the route beyond would have been the same, if Fremont 
wanted to go over at the head of the Rio Grande, as he 
originally stated. If Williams failed, it was in not guiding 
the relief party directly to Taos, but he does not appear 
exactly to have gone "astray" before that. 

' Letter of December ii, 1849, to J. R. Snyder, in Bigelow's Life, p. 391. 



Across the Range 403 

In Colorado, when someone died, they used to remark 
that he had gone "Across the Range." The survivors now 
might well exclaim: 

"Half sleeping by the fire I sit, 
I start and wake, it seems so strange 
To find myself alone 
And Tom Across the Range."* 

For Tom, and Bill, and all the others had indeed unex- 
pectedly gone over the Great Barrier. But many there 
were waking by firesides over all the coimtry to find them- 
selves alone. Twenty thousand Americans by way of the 
Mexican War had gone "Across the Range;" five thousand 
by battle, fifteen thousand by disease. In addition $100,000,- 
000 had been the cost of this determination to compel the 
Mexicans to accept a price of $15,000,000 for land they did 
not want to sell, and, with several millions to settle claims, 
etc., the total cost became about $130,000,000. The treaty 
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ratified May 30, 1848, gave to the 
United States an addition of some 651,591 square miles. ^ 

The " Manifest Destiny " of Senator Benton and the 
circle had eliminated all foreign territory between the Gila 
and the 49th parallel, and had brought the United States to 
face the Orient. Fremont had performed a great part in 
this achievement by three illuminating expeditions, as well 
as by valuable operations in aid of the conquest of California. 
His reward we have seen. 

Before the country now were two paramount questions : 
slavery in the new lands, and a railway to the Pacific. In 
both of these Fremont was deeply interested. His attempt 
to survey a route, just thwarted, was not to be his last. 

'J. Harrison Mills. 

^ History of the War With Mexico, by Horatio O. Ladd. 






CHAPTER XVIII 

SOME EVENTS OF '49 

Friends at Taos — Aubrey's Rides — Recuperation — Down the Rio Grande — 
Tucson and San Xavier del Bac — Mrs. Fremont at Panama — Days of 
Fever — San Francisco Society — Slavery or no Slavery — The Mariposa 
Claim and its Gold Mines — Fremont Made Boundary Commissioner — 
Acceptance and Resignation — The Constitutional Convention — The 
State Organised — Fremont Elected United States Senator — To Washing- 
ton by Panama — Waiting for Recognition. 

ALTHOUGH the Fourth Expedition had terminated 
so disastrously in the field and left the leader 
penniless, he continued his plan to reach California, 
not of course, by crossing the Rocky Mountains in the deep 
snows, but by a far southern route into old Mexico, avoiding 
them altogether. Henceforth he intended to make Cali- 
fornia his home, and he had the great Mariposa estate to 
develop. By this time Mrs. Fremont and his little daughter 
were about to start on their journey to the Coast by way of 
the Isthmus of Panama, and no reason existed for his imme- 
diate return to the States. From Taos he wrote to her Feb- 
ruary 6, 1849, to be forwarded via St. Louis, by St. Vrain, 
who was to return there the middle of the month. In this 
letter, which she received while ill at Panama, he says: 

I make frequently pleasant pictures of the happy home we are 
to have, and oftenest and among the pleasantest of all I see 
our library with its bright fire in the rainy stormy days, and 
the large window looking out upon the sea in the bright weather. 
I have it all planned in my own mind. 

Now, after all his wanderings, bruised and wounded by 

404 



Recuperating 405 

the recent overwhelming defeat, and the losses in his party, 
his thoughts turned for relief strongly to the comfortable 
home he pictured near the Golden Gate ; and the idea of such 
a home never left him to his last breath. In adversity nothing 
appeals to the explorer's heart so much as the tranquil pic- 
ture of a fixed habitation where exist those treasures which 
sometimes to him seem like impossible phantasmagoria: 
warmth, shelter, and food. Fremont easily could always 
have had these, and luxury. He is sometimes disparaged for 
the influence his father-in-law exerted in furthering his am- 
bitious exploring ventures, but how much easier it would 
have been for the great Senator to have provided Fremont 
with a comfortable government position; a position with 
large pay and little work and a luxurious home in the capital. 
Such things have been known! But Fremont never sought 
ease. No expedition was too strenuous for his ambition 
and, iintil the knockout of the court-martial, he had never 
failed to "make good." 

At Taos he was among friends. There was Kit Carson, 
the wonderful knight of the wilderness, probably his most 
devoted supporter, eager to go on with him to California but 
deterred from doing so; and there was Dick Owens, soon 
to go to St. Louis for a bride and then strike for California; 
and there was Maxwell living with his father-in-law and 
making much money as a merchant and contractor; and 
in addition there were St. Vrain and Aubrey, not to mention 
the army officers ; for the country was now held by our army. 
St. Vrain was a noted frontiersman and so was Aubrey; 
men known in every hut and teepee of the Far West. Francis 
Xavier Aubrey, of St. Louis, made two rides from Santa 
Fe to Independence that rivalled the one of Fremont from 
Los Angeles to Monterey. The first ride, very recently 
accomplished, was 775 miles in eight days, but the second 
was later, in 1853, the same distance in five days, thirteen 
hours (about 140 miles per da}^. when he had to be lifted 
out of the saddle at the end. Both these rides were on 



4o6 Fremont and '49 

wagers. He was a frontiersman and scout of the indefatig- 
able kind and had worked out new routes of travel. One of 
these to California was criticised by Major Weightman, one 
of the very officers about to render Fremont assistance, and 
when Aubrey, to his face, sometime after this, condemned 
the criticism, Weightman stabbed him to death, claiming 
it to be in self-defence.^ 

The conditions that produced this tragedy had not yet 
occurred and Weightman as well as Aubrey took much 
generous interest in Fremont. The latter loaned him a 
thousand dollars with which to buy mules, and he accom- 
panied him on his start, as far as Socorro. 

Fremont had lingered at Taos only to recover from the 
exposure and to get news of his party which he had left 
behind, when the first men sent forward failed to return, in 
order that he might effect their rescue, and he said when he 
finally heard of all the misfortune, "I look upon the anxiety 
which induced me to set out from camp as an inspiration. 
Had I remained there waiting the party which had been 
sent, every man of us would probably have perished."^ 
He had almost resolved to start out again himself to investi- 
gate when the long delayed news of the men reached him by 
Haler's arrival. He was then prepared to continue to Cali- 
fornia, and he hoped "to shut out these things" from his 
mind. Recent events had astonished him with a "persist- 
ence of misfortime which his precautions had not been 
adequate to avoid." 

At Santa Fe he stopped two days ; on the first dining with 
Colonel Washington, Military Governor, and on the second 
with the officers in their quarters, joined by Colonel Wash- 
ington. They all were helpful and kind and gave him mate- 
rial aid. On hired animals he reached Albuquerque, where 
sixty horses and mules had been purchased for his account, 

» Weightman seems to have been a trouble hunter, and had numerous 
encounters. 

^Bigelow's Life, p. 371, 







•^3 ^ 

O 1J 

o c: 






s 



Friends with Apaches 407 

and he left that place with a company of thirty men with 
the intention of making a rapid journey, counting on reaching 
California in twenty-five days. 

At Socorro on the Rio Grande he arrived February 24th, 
1849, at half -past eight in the morning, and breakfasted by 
appointment with the commanding officer, Colonel Buford, 
proceeding the same day southward from this, the last 
settlement he would see, till he reached Tucson,^ then a 
Mexican military outpost or presidio. Following down the 
Rio Grande, or near it, on the west bank to which he had 
crossed at Albuquerque, he left it more to the east at the 
Rio Palomas, and headed on a tolerably straight line for 
a point about where Hillsboro, New Mexico, now stands. 
From here he went on south to Barenda Creek, at the head of 
which he crossed the Mimbres Range to the Mimbres River. 
Thence the course was to Ojo de Vaca (Cow Spring) and 
from there westerly to near Lordsburg, New Mexico. 
Thence a south-west coiirse was pursued to the 11 0th merid- 
ian at about 31° 06^ into what is still Mexico, where the 
direction of his trail turned northwards. 

The only encoimter he had with Indians was on the fourth 
day when one of his men who had lagged behind was shot at 
with guns, but missed. Discovering two Indians ahead, a 
little later, Fremont, with his interpreter, rode over to them. 
He gave his name. They said they had never heard of him 
before, whereupon he declared they ought to be ashamed not 
to know about their best friend and asked where their camp 
was. Finally inducing them to come to his camp, which at 
first they feared to do, having been the ones who had shot at 
his man, he fed them and treated them with so much con- 
sideration that they left in good spirits. They were probably 
Apaches. The later notorious Apache chief Geronimo, who 
led his tribe so successfully against Mexicans and whites in 

'Tucson was first mentioned in 1699 by Padre Kino under the name of 
San Augustin. Tucson is from the Papago language, Tu-uk-so-on — meaning 
the water or spring at the black rock. 



4o8 Fremont and '49 

revenge for their cruelties and encroachments, was then only 
twenty years old and but recently admitted to the council of 
warriors. Mangus Colorado was chief of the Bedonkohe 
Apaches (Geronimo's band) while another notorious fighter, 
Cochise, was chief of the Chokonen (Chiracahua) Apaches. 
The Apaches were the scourge of the South- West, raiding 
white men and Indians alike and being the greatest enemies 
of the sedentary or pueblo-dwelling tribes. Fremont was 
fortunate in not having trouble with them. They would not 
be imposed upon by whites or Mexicans and consequently 
the struggle was long and fierce, as unlike other tribes they 
did not fight and forget. Their name is the synonym for 
cruelty but their side is seldom told. * 

Passing north-westerly to Santa Cruz, Mexico, of to-day, 
this direction was continued to the iiith meridian at about 
31° 35^ whence he turned more directly to the north down 
the San Pedro River valley past Tubac, a former presidio of 
Mexico, then deserted, to the Mission of San Xavier del 
Bac and on to Tucson, now in Arizona. The church of San 
Xavier, begun in 1783 by the Franciscans near the site of 
one built in 1700 by Padre Kino, the Jesuit explorer, was 
finished in 1797. It is still standing, though for a long 
period it was much neglected. 

At the time of Fremont's visit the region south of the Gila 
was still a part of Mexico, the Gadsden Purchase not having 
been consummated. The population of Bac consisted mainly 
of a few families of Papago (Piman) Indians, whose huts, as 
at the present time, surrotmded the beautiful edifice which 
like a flower astonishingly arose out of the heart of the des- 
ert country. ^ Nine miles north was Tucson, with a popula- 
tion then of about eight hundred, including the garrison. 
It is now an attractive city of some 20,000 and, lying at a 
height above sea level of 2360 feet in the clear Arizona sun- 

' See Geronimo's Story of His Life, taken down and edited by S. M. Barrett, 
1906. 

* The interior shows some interesting carvings and paintings. 



News of the Goldstrike 409 

shine, it is a favourite resort of invalids and tourists in winter. 
It is an important station on the Southern Pacific Railway. 
About on the present line of this railway, Fremont proceeded 
from Tucson north-westerly to the Gila River, which he 
reached near the present town of Gila. 

The line of march henceforth was down the Gila along 
the south bank. In this region he met with a large party 
of Sonora-Mexican "Forty-niners," about 1200 including 
women and children, on their way to California to profit by 
the great gold discovery, of which Fremont now for the first 
time learned. Believing that gold must also be found on 
his Mariposa lands he engaged twenty-eight of the men to 
dig for him on shares, when they should arrive there. He 
was to furnish the supplies, "grubstake " them as it was later 
called, and they were to divide with him equally what was 
secured. These people were familiar with the work and 
hence would be valuable, but unfortunately an antipathy 
on the part of the Americans prevented their remaining 
long. 

The first gold in California was discovered along the 
rivers, in the gravel, in what were called placer mines. The 
extraction of it was an easy process. It could be separated 
from the sand and gravel by panning, that is by placing these 
in a flat, iron, pan and throwing out the stones by hand, 
and the sand by repeated scoopings of water, till the gold 
came in sight and could be amalgamated by pouring in a 
little quicksilver; but this was a slow process and only 
suitable for prospecting. 

To work a placer properly long wooden boxes, called 
sluice-boxes, about eighteen inches wide and deep, open on 
top, would be set up, connecting, along the stream and the 
bottom of the sluice covered with transverse strips of wood 
about an inch high and perhaps a foot or so apart. A swift 
stream was kept rimning through this and into it was 
shovelled the gold-bearing sands and gravel. The water 
carried the refuse along and out, while the gold, being heavier, 



410 Fremont and '49 

lodged behind one or the other of the transverse strips and 
at the end of a certain time was cleaned up by stopping the 
water and brushing up the coarser gold with a little broom 
and by amalgamating the finer. ^ But before this method was 
developed the gold was saved with a rocker, an affair much 
like a baby's cradle with a sieve above, and a copper plate 
containing a coating of mercury below, where the gold 
lodged. After a time lode veins were discovered and this 
led to the building of stamp mills where the ore had to be 
crushed before the amalgamation or other process could be 
employed. The early methods were crude and the waste or 
"dump " heaps eventually yielded fortunes to those who were 
able to apply more refined processes. 

Arriving at the Colorado River, Fremont crossed it near 
the mouth of the Gila and pushed on by way of Aguas 
Calientes (Warner's) to Los Angeles. He was expecting 
Mrs. Fremont to arrive soon, as it was now near the first of 
April. 

There was, however, a serious delay in Mrs. Fremont's 
progress. Owing to the desertion at San Francisco of 
everybody to the mines, the steamer that was to have re- 
turned to Panama from San Francisco about the time of her 
arrival was not able to do it and seven weeks elapsed before 
the vessel was again at Panama. Several thousand Amer- 
icans meanwhile were stalled in Panama; each monthly 
steamer from New York bringing more. None were pre- 
pared for such a contingency. They lived in tents or any 
way at all to live through the tropical climate. Mrs. Fre- 
mont had crossed the Isthmus safely, by the aid of the 
officials of the railway then being surveyed. She was taken 
up the Chagres River in boats, poling against the current, 
three days, as far as Gorgona, and thence overland by a 
mule trail to Panama, the nights being spent at the Survey 
camps. Her escort considered her very patient and brave. 

' Later on the gravel and sand were washed into the sluice-boxes by 
directing a powerful stream of water against a bank. 




Jessie Benton Fremont 

From an oil painting by Fagnani. Painted in New York about 1856 



At Panama 411 

"He judged," she says, "as we all do by appearances. As 
there were no complaints or tears or visible breakdown, he 
gave me credit for high courage, while the fact was that the 
whole thing was so like a nightmare, that one took it as a 
bad dream — in helpless silence."' At last she reached 
Panama, "the first walled city I had ever seen: and its 
land-gate and water-gate, and its old cathedral, with the 
roof and spire inlaid with mother of pearl, all made me feel 
that I had come to a foreign country. " 

Then the people began to literally "pile up" in Panama 
waiting for the steamer that was to take them to the land of 
gold, afterwards a sad disappointment to most of them. The 
days of old, and the days of gold, and the days of '49, were 
often sung about in later years but at the time there was 
probably as much discomfort, suffering, and plain misery to 
each twenty-four hours as the world has ever seen ; the woods 
were full of "tenderfoots. " From some of the later arrivals 
from New York, Mrs. Fremont heard of the disaster to the 
Fourth Expedition; they had later papers, and in the mail 
was the letter Fremont had written her from Taos giving a 
full account of the misfortune of his party. Everyone 
advised her to return home, for, they said, Fremont surely 
would never get through to meet her; but this was an idea 
she refused to accept and she would not think of going back. 
Mr. Gray, of the Boundary Commission, one morning 
brought her a late newspaper containing a letter of her 
father's describing the Fremont expedition, and in the even- 
ing, when he returned with further news, he found Mrs. 
Fremont sitting exactly as he had left her, the unopened 
jiaper in her hand and her forehead purple from congestion 
of the brain. 

She did not comprehend a word that was said to her and a 
hard illness followed, but the motherly kindness and devoted 
attention of Madame Arce, in whose household she was 
domiciled, brought her to convalescence by the time the 

' A Year of American Travel, by Mrs. Fri^mont, p. 56. 



412 Fremont and '49 

delayed steamer arrived. She was therefore able to pro- 
ceed but her brother-in-law, Governor Jacobs of Kentucky, 
who had started as her escort, and who had been simstruck, 
and all this time was also very ill, was obliged to return to 
the States. She records that Lieutenant Beale arrived on 
his way to Washington with the first gold, but according to 
others, Beale did not go by way of Panama, and Mrs. Fre- 
mont must have confused the time with some later one.^ 
She was still suffering but on the steamer she received excel- 
lent care. Owing to the illness of the Captain the vessel by 
neglect was nearly run ashore, being saved only by the prompt 
skill of some American naval officers who happened to be 
passengers. 

At San Diego Mrs. Fremont was to receive word from her 
husband according to previous plans and she waited for this 
news eagerly as the anchor went down. Soon she heard 
many repeating to her the joyful words, "The Colonel is 
safe — he was in Los Angeles three weeks ago," and she 
heard too that he had proceeded overland to San Francisco 
to meet the steamer but on arriving there she found he had 
not come. The reason for this failure was that the steamer 
had been scheduled to stop at Monterey and he was there 
at the proper time, but the vessel, owing to shortage of fuel, 
went on without a halt. Captain Jones, the same who had 
prematurely captured Monterey, was at San Francisco with 
the U. S. S. Ohio, and the shore accommodations being scant 
he placed the Ohio at Mrs. Fremont's disposal till her hus- 
band should arrive, but the land looked more inviting to an 
invalid and she accepted an invitation from a wealthy mer- 
chant, Mr. Howard, to stay at a club which had been organ- 
ised and which occupied the house formerly belonging to the 
consul Leidesdorf, deceased. It was a well built one-story 

' See the Life of Edward Fitzgerald Beale, by Stephen Bonsai, in which it is 
stated that Beale with the first gold went from La Paz to Mazatlan, thence to 
San Bias and by Guadalajara and Mexico City to Vera Cruz. Version con- 
densed from the National Intelligencer, where it appeared at the instance of 
Beale himself. 




X! U - 



o O T 

c/1 r — 

a a > 

« c 2 

u 

B 
at 





Early San Francisco 413 

adobe with a veranda and a beautiful garden, and was 
thoroughly furnished, even to a piano. The servants were 
all Chinese, but a white woman was employed for Mrs. 
Fremont's benefit. This attendance did not last long as the 
woman left in a huff because she was not permitted to have 
Mrs. Fremont's new dresses copied for herself. Being paid 
^240 a month she felt that nothing was too fine for her. 

There were at this time only a few regularly built houses 
in San Francisco ; the rest were tents of canvas or of blankets. 
"The only really private house," says Mrs. Fremont, 
"was one belonging to a New Yorker who had shipped it 
from home, house and furniture complete — a double two- 
story frame house, which, when in place, was said to have cost 
ninety thousand dollars. " It was intended for a bride who, 
alas, lived but a few weeks in all that magnificence. "At a 
party given to welcome her the whole force of San Francisco 
society came out, the ladies sixteen in number. " ' This was 
San Francisco in the first half of '49, when, as Mrs. Fremont 
was informed, "time was worth fifty dollars a minute," at 
least in daylight. 

When Fremont arrived at last, they looked about for a 
home but it was difficult to know how and where to live. 
The only servants available were half-trained Indians, as 
all the whites had rushed off to gather in the gold. Eggs, 
milk, vegetables, and fresh meat were absent, their substi- 
tutes being canned meat, maccaroni, rice, ham, and beans. 
Vegetables were only to be had by working one's own garden 
as General Riley, commander of the Post, did. He proudly 
presented Mrs. Fremont with some of the products of his 
toil. General Canby (later killed by the Modocs) was also 
living here and his wife distributed to her friends excellent 
bread made by their mulatto cook. It was a strange life 
for Mrs. Fremont, as well as for everyone else. In the mines 
it was even worse; and the multitude of people coming in 
from all quarters dislocated everything. 

' A Year of American Travel, Airs. Frdmont, p. loi. 



414 Fremont and '49 

In visiting among native homes, the first act of hospitality 
was to pass cigarettes, both ready made and unmade. 
Everybody was supposed to smoke and almost everybody 
did. The Fremonts soon took up their residence in Mon- 
terey and went to housekeeping in a wing of the Governor's 
house, the largest and best building in town, with thick adobe 
walls and a large garden surrounded by a hedge of roses. 
The furniture was purchased in San Francisco and was 
largely of Chinese manufacture. In some wares the market 
was extremely limited and for that reason a punch-bowl was 
the only thing available for a toilet basin. For a cook Fre- 
mont had brought out with him as body servant the free 
coloured man Saunders, but Saunders while free himself 
possessed, or rather did not possess, but desired to possess, 
a slave family. As his family had been offered to him as a 
job lot for $1700, Fremont sent him into the mines where 
he could easily earn the money with which to buy them. 
This left the Fremonts without his valuable services, but 
as Fremont and his wife were radically opposed to slavery, 
though both were Southern born, they were interested in 
seeing Satmders free his wife and children. 

The subject of slave labour in California soon came up. 
The Sonorans who had been working on Fremont's Mariposa 
claim, where they foiind abundance of gold, presently 
desired to return home. Sonorans were not well treated in 
California. They had sent down bags of gold of about one 
hiindred pounds each which accumulated in trunks in the 
Fremont quarters at Monterey. Fortune promised to smile 
generously. "Up to a certain point," remarks Mrs. Fre- 
mont, "everything seemed to be against us. Then the tide 
turned and it was indeed a flood of good fortune. . . . All 
our plans had been made before the discovery of gold. We 
had expected to live the usual life of people going to a new 
country, and had sent around all manner of useful things 
from a circular saw to a travelling carriage." It was to be 
life on a cattle ranch. 



A Flood of Fortune 415 

As in many of the affairs in his Hfc, Fremont has been 
severely censured on account of the Mariposa transaction, 
but apparently with no very just reasons. One critic with 
his usual unfriendly attitude exclaims: 

How curious an accident this, that the "Conqueror of California" 
should by chance have purchased, before the discovery of gold in 
that territory, the only Mexican grant that covered any part of 
the gold region. . . . The gold mine had fallen to the hero, 
and like all his other wonderful fortunes it profited him nothing. ' 

It seems to me these sneers are unwarranted. Fremont did 
not claim to be the "Conqueror of California" nor did he 
claim to be a hero. He was essentially a modest man. The 
reader by this time is able from the preceding pages to form 
an estimate of Fremont and he will probably agree in con- 
demning this unfair attitude. 

Whether Fremont came into possession of Mariposa by 
accident or not is of no importance. His daughter says it 
was bought for him in lieu of a Mission farm which he desired 
and that at the time of purchase it was a cattle range con- 
sidered of small value. It is perfectly plain that if gold in 
large quantities had not been discovered, Mariposa would 
have been at least a quarter of a century in arriving at any 
kind of a rich price, and the gold was discovered a year 
after the purchase. Fremont received the grant and paid 
for it; the land was therefore his, subject to confirmation 
by American law. Why should anyone condemn him for 
this purely legitimate business transaction? Even had he 
purchased it intentionally and with the knowledge that it 
was rich in gold, there would be no dishonour in the matter as 
his assailants would have us believe. It was Fremont's to 
do as he liked with. Where then is the crime? 

The "Mariposas," as it was called by the Mexicans, was 
a land grant that had been made by Governor Micheltorena, 
February 20, 1844, to Juan B. Alvarado, for patriotic ser- 

' Josiah Royce, Atlaiitic Monthly, 1890, p. 550. 



4i6 Fremont and '49 

vices. Alvarado was the one time revolutionary governor 
of California. Through Larkin, a man noted for excessive 
shrewdness in business matters, it was purchased for Fre- 
mont, instead of the Mission farm before referred to, in 
1847, while Fremont was campaigning in the south. The 
price paid was ^3000. It was a grant of land suitable for 
grazing purposes lying in the basin of the Mariposa River, 
but Hke so many similar grants, "the boundaries were not 
fixed, and the grantee had the right of locating the claim on 
any land within a large area."^ By the terms of the grant 
Alvarado was not to sell or mortgage it and was to build a 
house within a year to be inhabited. These restrictions 
came up later in the question of the validity of Fremont's 
title, and it may be stated that Alvarado had ignored every 
one of them. 

The Mexican law gave the grantee no right to any miner- 
als and then came the question whether Fremont had any 
more claim than any other finder on the gold that was discov- 
ered there. He had provided a large amount of machinery 
and supplies based on the development of Mariposa as a 
cattle ranch, but the new turn of affairs made it inexpedient to 
proceed in that way and these materials remained in storage 
in San Francisco. 

About this time Lieutenant Beale arrived in California 
with government despatches, and he also bore a message 
for Fremont. This was the appointment from President 
Taylor, June 25, 1849, as member of the Boundary Com- 
mission, to take the place of Weller, an appointee of Polk's. 
President Taylor, it is said, intended this appointment as 
a special mark of his disapproval of the sentence of the 
court-martial. As it was understood that Weller would, in 
any case, not continue in the office, Fremont accepted the 
position. 

This led to a letter from Jacob R. Snyder, December il, 

' The Mariposa Estate . . . Official Report of J. Ross Browne, New York, 
1868, p. 6. 



Slave Labour 417 

1849, stating that Colonel Fremont's name had long been 
before the public as a candidate for United States Senator 
from the new State to be created and asking explanations on 
this (as Taylor was of the opposite political complexion) 
and other matters, to clear the way for the nomination. 
Satisfactory explanations were given.' Fremont then, after 
some consultation with Weller, and after securing for him a 
loan to tide him over till government funds should arrive, 
decided to resign his appointment and did so. The Fre- 
monts had planned to remain in California at least seven 
years, "the world forgetting, by the world forgot," as Mrs. 
Fremont put it, but the gold discovery and political prospects 
made material changes. The Sonorans then left for home, 
and as Fremont, at the moment, could not go to Monterey 
to divide the gold with them, he sent them his keys and they 
did it themselves, never taking a single ounce more than 
their share. 

His friends now urged him to import slave labour, especi- 
ally the Southerners who were eager to secure California in the 
ranks of the slave States as well as all the West if possible. 
Indeed it has been charged that the Mexican War was 
planned, pushed, and completed primarily to acquire territory 
for the extension of slavery. Fremont was told that his prop- 
erty could be made to pay magnificently with this labour 
but he refused to listen to this counsel and thus definitely 
began the opposition to the creation of a new slave State in 
California. He was unalterably opposed to slavery and later 
on in his career this led him into difficulty with high powers. 

California began to organise a permanent American 
government, the story of which has been well told by 
Professor Royce: 

The American new-comers in California, under the new condition 
of things, naturally took the lead in everything. The natives, 

' The full text of the letter is given in Bigelow's FrSmont, pp. 388-89, 
and also Frdmont's reply, pp. 389 et seq. 
27 



4i8 Fremont and '49 

weary of the recent struggles, and generally hopeless and sullen, 
were glad to be let alone, and for the time they had little to say. 
It was the American who now complained bitterly of all the 
political, commercial, and social evils of this transition state; 
who loudly called for a stable government; who sometimes 
threatened to disregard United States authority altogether, and 
go back to Bear Flag conditions; and who, in general, gave his 
soul free vent in his newly founded newspapers. Yet it was the 
American who, in the midst of his private discontent, and in fact 
by virtue of this discontent, prepared the way for the birth of the 
sovereign state in 1849. ^ 

Up to this time there had been a military government and 
government by the alcaldes of each town, but "Forty-niners " 
were pouring in across the plains and mountains from the 
East, and by vessel from every comer of the globe. Some- 
thing had to be done. The gold discovery at Sutter's Mill 
had developed new and unexpected conditions and in a few 
months was giving California a greater population many 
times over than had been expected in years. By the end of 
'49 there were more than a hundred thousand people here, 
not counting Indians. The laws of California "not incon- 
sistent with the laws, constitution, and treaties of the United 
States" were to continue in force till changed by "competent 
authority." What was this authority to be? In the 
wrangle over slavery California was again adrift, so far as 
any help from the Congress of the United States was con- 
cerned, but the predominating element was American and 
where there are more than three individuals the American 
is accustomed to establish a government. The talk of a 
Bear Flag republic was set aside and finally a convention 
was called at Monterey, September, 1849, to prepare a con- 
stitution for the new State of California. The constitution 

^ Royce, California, p. 198. See also History of California, by H. H. 
Bancroft; History of San Francisco, by J. S. Hittell; History of California, by 
Theodore H. Hittell; The United States and Mexico, by G. L. Rives; and 
Historia de California, by Gen. Vallejo. 



Elected Senator 419 

was adopted November 13, 1849. The State then was duly 
organised and the third period in the history of California 
began. The first legislature met in San Jose and there 
Fremont and the other senatorial candidates repaired. 

Mrs. Fremont was at Monterey because of the greater 
comfort of her quarters there, as it was deemed wise to con- 
serve her returning health. 

One evening of tremendous rain [she relates], when we were 
as usual around the fire, Mrs. M'Evoy, with her table and lights, 
sewing at one side, myself by the other, explaining pictures from 
the Illustrated Times to my little girl, while the baby rolled about 
on the bear-skin in front of the fire, suddenly Mr. Fremont came 
in upon us, dripping wet, as well he might be, for he had come 
through from San Jose — seventy miles on horseback through 
the heavy rain. . . . He came to tell me that he had been 
elected Senator, and that it was necessary we should go to 
Washington on the steamer of the ist of January [1850].^ 

The next morning he rode back to San Jose on the same 
sorrel that had brought him up, making 140 miles in thirty- 
six hours, on one horse, Saunders was to return with the 
Fremonts, happy in having gained more than enough money 
to buy the freedom of his family; enough in fact to buy a 
home as well; one successful "Forty-niner" at any rate. 

Mrs. Fremont became ill again on the voyage to Panama. 
She missed Fremont at her side, and also wondered where the 
devoted Saunders was. It happened that Fremont was ill 
also and Saunders was taking care of him. Mrs. Fremont's 
case was attended to by Dr. Bowie, a navy surgeon, who was 
a passenger, and he carried her through successfully. Again 
she was taken to Madame Arce's at Panama, and so also was 
her husband. Rheumatic fever had developed in one of his 
legs which had been frost-bitten in the San Juan Mountains, 
and it is evident that he had suffered more on that occasion 

' Year of American Travel, p. 159. 



420 Fremont and '49 

than he related. He was not given to lamentation at any 
time. 

The steamers being a month apart, and the Fremonts 
having missed the one they had planned to take, they were 
convalescent by the time the sailing date again came round. 
But Mrs. Fremont was unable to walk, much less ride a mule 
over the rough trails, so a palanquin was built for her, and 
in this manner she was carried across to the Chagres River, 
down which they proceeded in a boat. The character of 
the road at this time is described by another traveller. 
"After having passed the first section [over water, stones, and 
mud], which was a trail through chaparral, we came to the 
old Spanish route, worn down to a depth of from eight to 
twelve feet into the very rocks, from having been a water- 
course in the rainy season."^ The mules had worn holes 
in the rock to the depth of a foot or more, regular stepping 
places, and in stepping from hole to hole they acquired a 
side swing that was anything but comfortable. At times 
the passage was so narrow that two mules could not pass 
and before entering such places the drivers would halt and 
give a loud yell as a warning. There was little to be had to 
eat, and that little bad; the air was muggy and full of 
Chagres fever; and, taken all in all, the Isthmus passage 
in '49 was a dreary, desolate, uncomfortable, dangerous 
thing. For those living on or near the eastern seaboard 
of the continent who longed to join the ranks of the Forty- 
niners and rush to California to assist in demolishing the 
mountains of gold, it was a problem whether to brave the 
tomahawk of the plains or the Chagres fever of the Isthmus. 
For most of them it was sure to result in lamentations that 
they had not gone the other way. A large number never 
should have been permitted to go beyond the shadow of a 
lunatic asylum. Fremont had clearly marked out on paper 
the several routes, and mystery as to the intervening country 

^ A. C. Ferris, " Hardships of the Isthmus in '49," Century Magazine, vol. 
xix., N. S., p. 929. 



Slavery or Not 421 

was dispelled by his efforts. The Isthmus route had the 
advantage in time, which is why he took it, and perhaps 
in safety, though the cross-continent lines of travel lay for 
the most part through a salubrious climate, and, except in 
winter and in the matter of hostile Indians, offered to the 
persevering and cautious a not unpleasant experience. 

Arriving finally at the steamer for New York some of the 
immediate troubles of the Fremonts were past, but others 
came. The weather was stormy. The time was March. 
The seas ran high and higher. It was necessary to lash Mrs. 
Fremont to a sofa. She grew worse. "I have been told," 
she exclaims, ' ' that by all the laws of medicine I should have 
died then. " Fremont himself was down with Chagres fever 
and the voyage up to New York was anything but joyful. 
At last they reached that haven and were speedily on the 
way to Washington. Fremont and Gwin prepared to re- 
present the new State in the United States Senate, but 
things never move easily in politics and they were obliged to 
wait for Congress to settle the contention over the question 
of slavery. Was California to bela slave State or not? The 
South said in answer to this question, emphatically, Yes; 
the North quite as emphatically said. No. 




CHAPTER XIX 



WASHINGTON, LONDON, PARIS, AND PAROWAN 



California Admitted to the Union — Senator Fremont — His Work in Congress — 
Commended as an Explorer by Humboldt and Ritter — Gold Medals from 
Prussia and the Royal Geographical Society — Slavery and Anti-Slavery 
Again — The Mariposa Problem — Rough-and-Ready Forty-niners — 
Frs^mont Arrested in England — A Sojourn in Paris — On the Trail Again — 
Fifth and Last Expedition — Named for President — Starving through the 
Mountains — A Pathfinder — Death of Oliver Fuller — Friendly Mormons 
of Parowan — Mental Telepathy. 

THE dispute in Congress over the question of slavery, or 
no slavery, in California, was temporarily adjusted 
by the ''Compromise of 1850" and the State 
(whose constitution prohibited slavery) admitted into the 
Union as one where the barbarism was not to be established, 
either north, or south, of 36° 30^ the Missouri Compromise 
line, though it was not till some years later that the possi- 
bility of slavery was absolutely eliminated. It was on the 
9th of September, 1850, that the Bear Flag star was trans- 
ferred to the galaxy of the Union, and the next day the 
senators-elect, Fremont and Gwin, presented their creden- 
tials. After some opposition, on the part of Jefferson Davis 
and others on the ground that "the constitutional provisions 
could not have been complied with," a favourable vote dis- 
posed of the matter and the two senators took their seats. 
In order to adjust their terms to the proper alternation, they 
were assigned to draw lots; Fremont had the poor luck to 
draw the short term. 

Shortly after reaching Washington he was invited to 
attend the Mississippi and Pacific Railroad convention set 
for April, in Philadelphia, to further the project of estab- 

422 



A Senator 423 

lishing at once a national waggon-road across the western 
mountains, to be the forerunner of the much talked of Pacific 
railway, but his physical condition, owing to the Chagres 
fever, prevented his going. He wrote a long letter present- 
ing his views, stating among his reasons why a railway was 
practicable: 

The snows are less formidable than would be supposed, from 
the great elevation of the central part of the route. They are 
dry, and therefore are more readily passed through ; are thin in the 
valleys, and remain only during a brief winter. ... In conclusion, 
I have to say that I believe in the practicability of this work, and 
that every national consideration requires it to be done, and to 
be done at once, and as a national work by the United States. 

He still had in mind further exploration for what he 
believed was the most feasible route across the mountains, 
between the 37th and 38th parallels, with Senator Benton's 
interest as great as his own in the project, but at present he 
devoted his attention entirely to the duties of his senator- 
ship. Having been seated so late in the session he had only 
twenty-one days in which to introduce a number of measures 
relating to California. Most of these pertained to land and 
mining claim adjustments as these were the most crying 
necessities of legislation in that quarter. A list of the bills 
is given by both Bigelow and Upham, in their works on 
Fremont, and I will omit it here. Upham remarks, "His 
style of debate was compact, clear, easy, and natural. He 
was thoroughly equipped with the requisite information and 
presented his views sensibly and forcibly. " ' 

Senator Fremont opposed any tax on the product of the 
mines, believing that the resulting development of the 
country and foreign commerce would reimburse the Govern- 
ment adequately, but to my mind the whole policy that 
ensued appears wrong. The certain result of striving to 
imitate Aladdin in the development of the magnificent 

' Life of Fremont by Charles Wentworth Upham, Boston, 1856. 



424 Fremont and '49 

resources was to demolish and cripple them. I have ob- 
served forty years of this method of giving away the people's 
inheritance to a few with no return, and it seems to me short- 
sighted. Fremont was thinking, as all did at that time, of 
opening up a country whose resources were supposed to be 
inexhaustible, and which, it was believed, would not in a 
century become even partially settled. At present over 
10,000,000 people live in that "wilderness, " and land in some 
of the deserts which Fremont examined with such difficulty 
can be bought only at high prices ; mines are pouring treasure 
into private coffers with no share to the whole people who 
presented them, and even our National Parks, so wisely set 
aside, are wanted for monopoly. 

Fremont's record in the Senate was entirely creditable. 
At the close of the session one unpleasant episode occurred. 
Senator Foote, of Mississippi, speaking to another bill inter- 
jected derogatory remarks upon one of Fremont's bills, to 
adjust land claims, insinuating that this was in the interest of 
Fremont's Mariposa grant. Senator Fremont immediately 
left the Chamber and from another room sent a messenger 
to Senator Foote, who went to meet him as soon as the speech 
was over. Fremont then declared that the statements made 
were unworthy of a Senator, whereupon Foote struck at him. 
Others then interfered. The next day, through Governor 
Price of New Jersey, Senator Fremont demanded a retrac- 
tion. The reply by letter said: ''I do not feel that I should 
be doing justice to myself did I not in writing (as I thought 
I did last night very explicitly, orally) deny that I said any- 
thing denunciatory of the bill to which you refer, or of those 
who introduced it," He also said that if Senator Fremont, 
after this note, desired satisfaction he would arrange it. 
The affair would have been settled with this had not a letter 
appeared later in a newspaper, supposed to have been 
authorised by Foote, saying no retraction had been made and 
charging Senator Fremont with attempting to throttle de- 
bate on the California land bills. Fremont dropped it, 



Foreign Honours 425 

however, with a statement of the whole matter, to the 
Baltimore Su7i, September 30, 1850, which put Senator 
Foote in a rather unpleasant position.^ 

Not long after the adjournment of Congress, Fremont 
received a letter from Alexander von Humboldt (dated 
October 7, 1850) transmitting, by order of the King of 
Prussia, the great gold medal for progress in the sciences, 
bestowed upon him by the King (Frederick William IV.), 
and referring to "the public testimony [of Humboldt in his 
new edition of his Tableaux de la Nature] of the admiration 
which is due to your gigantic labours between St. Louis, of 
Missouri, and the coasts of the South Sea. " He further said : 
"You have displayed a noble courage in distant expeditions, 
braved all the dangers of cold and famine, enriched all the 
branches of the natural sciences, illustrated a vast country 
wliich was almost entirely unknown to us. " He also thanked 
Fremont for naming certain regions after him and after his 
friend Bonapland, and informed Fremont that on the pro- 
posal of Karl Ritter he had been made an honorary member 
of the Geographical Society of Berlin. To be commended 
by two such eminent geographers as Humboldt and Ritter 
was in itself high honour, particularly as Humboldt stood at 
the very front of all explorers and scientific investigators. 
But this was not all, a few months earlier (June) Fremont had 
received from the Royal Geographical Society, the Founder's 
Medal. This was presented through the State Department 
at Washington. In his acknowledgments, addressed to Sir 
Roderick Murchison, president of the Society, Fremont says, 
"I feel it a particular pleasure that they are rendered to a 
society which I am happy to recognise as my alma mater.'' 

As soon as his duties for the session were over. Senator 

' At the next session Fremont caused the bill to be altered by Senator 
Benton in such a manner that his case would be excepted and the Mariposa 
claim be settled by itself. Senator Foote previously had made an attack on 
Senator Benton whose anti-slavery activity was most objectionable to the 
Southerners, and doubtless Frdmont's anti-slavery position had much to do 
with Foote's animosity, especially, as Senator Benton was hit at the same time. 



426 Fremont and '49 

Fremont returned to California, by way of Panama, intend- 
ing to be back for the remaining term ending March, 1851. 
This certainly gave him little time and it seems singular that 
he should not have remained the interval in the East. As 
it was the Chagres fever seized him again, and when the date 
arrived to go to Washington he was incapacitated for travel 
and could not fulfil his obligation. Some of his enemies 
charged that he went out to electioneer for the senatorship 
to succeed himself, and he did become a candidate in 185 1. 
He was supported by the Free State party, whose title 
indicates that slavery for the Golden State had not been 
given up entirely. The pro-slavery faction, of which Gwin 
was a leader, had increased in power. Fremont, to them 
representing all things wicked, diabolical, and dangerous, 
they succeeded, after a series of 144 ballots, in defeating 
him but not in electing the successor — that went over to the 
next legislature. Nevertheless Fremont did not back down 
on his opposition to slavery. In Congress, to be sure, he had 
voted against a certain bill relating to the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia, and much has been made of that, 
but as he voted, at the same time, with the northern element 
against Jefferson Davis and his party who were in favour of 
the bill, or pretended to be, it is clear that his action was no 
contradiction to his principles, but had a correct purpose. 

He occupied himself in California with his Mariposa 
estate, from the 14th of May, 1851. It was leading him into 
many complications. Its boundaries were still uncertain; 
its title had not yet been confirmed by the American govern- 
ment, which, indeed, now took an extraordinary step with 
regard to all the old land titles. Instead of justly investi- 
gating the bona fide ownerships (many of which had come 
down from father to son) and having their boundaries deter- 
mined, a law was passed by Congress, in 1851, denying all 
titles and refusing confirmation to any without absolute 
proofs, on paper, of ownership. Meanwhile the original 
archives of the old Mexican administration had been nailed 



Chaotic Claims 427 

up in boxes at Benicia, and in other towns, and could not be 
utilised by either the owners, claimants, or the government 
officials. For six years there was chaos. A legion of land 
forgers was engendered by this condition of things, and they 
had it all their own way, for every liar not only felt secure, 
but was secure. The simple Mexicans, understanding little 
or no English were babes in the hands of these rascals. Those 
who went to law to secure justice presently found themselves 
destitute and without their lands as well. 

Most of the old land grants were very large, were uncer- 
tain in bounds, and covered some of the best tracts in the 
State. Settlers could not tell where to settle, and therefore 
they settled wherever they pleased, often directly on some- 
one's undoubted possessions, knowing there was no redress 
possible, and no expulsion except at the muzzle of a gun. 
No titles were given, but taxes were collected just the same, 
from the very persons denied their rights. 

Fremont had arranged the previous year to realise on his 
property by sales of claims in London, his agent there being 
one David Hoffman, but he had besides given Senator Benton 
a power of attorney. ^ Fremont had also sold the year before, 
to Thomas Denny Sargent, some leases on the Mariposa, and 
Sargent, being a "hustler," had gone to California, located 
and inspected the claims he held, and in the spring of this 
year of 1851, had gone to London where with such vigour he 
struck into the financial world, that he disposed of his leases 
for a large sum. This great success appealed to Benton, and 
under his power of attorney he proposed that Sargent should 
take over the entire tract for a million dollars. Sargent, 
believing in the soundness of the property, accepted, made 
his first payment, returned to England, and there speedily 
arranged for the sale of the whole property at an enormous 
advance on what he had agreed to pay for it. 

' The Frhnont Estate: an Address to the British Public Respecting Colonel 
Fremont's Leasing Powers to the Author from June, iS^o, by David Hoffman, 
London, December 20, 1851. 



428 Fremont and '49 

Hoffman, who had been working on the basis of leases 
and organising subsidiary companies, made a vigorous pro- 
test at being thus left in the lurch, unable to fulfil his obHga- 
tions, as no sale of the whole tract had been contemplated 
when he took hold, and he wrote to Fremont. On October 
29, 185 1, accordingly, Fremont ordered a temporary sus- 
pension of all transactions. He had previously written, "I 
have decidedly declined any sale of the Mariposas, " and he 
also had declared Flandin's offer to sell (Flandin being with 
Sargent), "an unauthorised impertinence ... he has 
no such power and never had. ' ' The situation was decidedly 
complex. The action of the American government in re- 
fusing to recognise all land claims added to the trouble and 
placed his Mariposa purchase in a precarious position. 
With such uncertainty of title how could he proceed, par- 
ticularly as it was uncertain that the gold mines would go 
with the land? 

The whole of California was full of complications over 
these land and mining claims. The Indians, too, resented 
the taking of their lands by the miners, and altogether the 
people of the old regime many a time must have lamented 
the day when the restless Americanos appeared ; but beyond 
all have lamented the discovery of gold. Those delightful, 
dreamy days of the past; the life of the old Missions; the 
padres; the sounds of vesper bells floating across tranquil 
fields — all were gone forever. No more would they loiter 
by the threshold chanting the soft Spanish airs to the accom- 
paniment of the guitar. It was now "Yankee Doodle" and 
"the Devil take the hindmost." The world believes itself 
greater when it is in a hurry and making a noise. 

A feverish excitement prevailed; gambling, drunkenness, 
horse-racing, horse-stealing, claim-jumping, and disorder 
generally. The days of '49 beheld here one of the most 
reckless, heterogeneous societies ever brought together. 

In San Francisco [the late sleepy Yerba Buena], the number 



Some Old Songs 429 

of duels and personal encounters was prodigious. From the day 
they disembarked the new arrivals found excitement. A month 
was a year; a week a month. Each day had its own history, 
both for the town and for individuals. The pleasures were reck- 
less, not tranquil, and no one had leisure to be courteous. Brawls 
occurred nightly. No one was arrested, no one warned, except 
perhaps by his enemy. ' 

The town was largely ruled by the "Sidney Ducks," a 
gang of English convicts from Australia. 

Some of the songs originating in this period became 
widely known, and lingered in Western camps for decades; 
for the camper, prospector, and even the gambler, liked a 
song. As late as 1872, The Days of *4Q, was still a favourite, 
and I heard it daily sung nobly from the saddle by one of 
our helpers, a young man who acquired it from his father. 
It had many stanzas each describing a familiar character of 
some mining camp, like "Old Lame Jess" who 'never missed 
a single meal and never put up a cent, In the days of old, 
and the days of gold, and the days of '49." Another was 
"Joe Bowers": 

My name it is Joe Bowers, 

I've got a brother Ike, 
I'm bound for Califomy, 

And I'm all the way from Pike. 

But in addition many good old English songs were in vogue, 
for there was nothing so dear to the English or American 
heart. 

Feeling ran strong on the slavery question. Senator 
Gwin and his faction were working with the object to divide 
the State in two (in the event of failure to introduce slavery) , 
the southern half to be a slave State. 

When Fremont had recovered his health he undertook 
some contracts to supply certain government commissioners 

' A Senator of the Fifties, David C. Broderick, by Jeremiah Lynch, San 
Francisco, 1911. There is much of interest in this book. 



430 Fremont and '49 

with a large amount of beef cattle for distribution, by treaty, 
among twenty-one of the starving Indian tribes which had 
fled to the barren high mountains, to escape persecution and 
destruction. The feeding was expected to pacify them till 
other measures for their control could be arranged. Fre- 
mont went to the southern ranches and collected many 
herds, himself superintending the driving north, delivering 
1,225,500 pounds "on the hoof." The results were what 
had been anticipated, but the commissioners could not get 
the money, and Fremont could not get his pay. Congress 
holding that this action had not been authorised. It was 
three years before he succeeded in getting a special bill 
through for his reimbursement. He finally received the 
money amounting with interest to $240,000. While he was 
in California this time, his home in Washington was, with 
others, destroyed by fire, on the 21st of June, 1851, but Mrs. 
Fremont being there and having a half-hour's time succeeded 
in saving all her husband's papers as well as many other 
valuables. 

Circumstances now directed Fremont's steps eastward 
again and early in March, 1852, he arrived in New York, 
and on the loth of March, with his family, he crossed to 
England in the steamship Africa. Their sojourn in London 
was highly agreeable, with the exception of one incident 
which was humiliating. Lawrence was then our minister, 
and he was an old friend. A presentation at the Queen's 
Dra wing-Room and other pleasant functions were arranged, 
and they were invited to the annual dinner given by Miss 
Coutts in honour of the birthday of the Duke of Wellington. 
That famous general, having the naming of guests, included 
the Fremonts in his list. On another evening as he was 
leaving the Clarendon Hotel with Mrs. Fremont to go to a 
dinner, he was suddenly arrested as he was about to enter 
the cab. He declared it must be a mistake, but the four 
constables roughly hurried him off to prison. Mrs. Fre- 
mont despatched a messenger to apprise their host, and 



Gibbs vs. Fremont 431 

herself hastened to the home of the American Minister, but 
he had started for the same dinner. It was not till very late 
that the situation was understood and that any friend got to 
Fremont. He was obliged to remain in prison over-night. 
The next day George Peabody furnished the funds neces- 
sary to liberate him on bail. This was the case of Gibbs 
vs. Fremont. It was for the non-payment of four drafts 
amounting to $19,500 which had been drawn by Fremont, in 
1847, on James Buchanan, Secretary of State, for the pur- 
chase of supplies necessary for the maintenance of the 
California Battalion when Fremont was acting governor of 
California. Buchanan had been unable to pay these because 
Congress, not having authorised the expenditure, failed 
to make the appropriation. The disappointed English 
holders of the "paper" concluded the surest way of getting 
the money was to proceed against Fremont, personally, and 
they pounced on him regardless of courtesy at the first 
opportunity ; another of his rewards for activity in acquiring 
California for the United States. 

The testimony of James Buchanan, taken in Philadelphia 
for the British court, was all favourable to Fremont. ' The 
matter was finally adjusted, but as it is a long story and not 
necessary here, I omit it. 

Leaving London, Fremont went to Paris and rented there 
the palatial furnished house of Lady Dundonald who desired 
to be absent for a period. It was on the Champs Elysees, 
half-way between the Arc de Triomphe and Ronde Pointe. 
While yet in London, news came of the death of Mrs. 
Fremont's young brother Randolph, who had been vnth. 
Fremont on the first expedition. She was so saddened that 
her eyes were injured by the constant weeping, and she was 
threatened with blindness. After the Parisian experience 

' Testimony in Gibbs vs. Fremont, taken for the defendant at Philadel- 
phia before commissioners appointed by Her Majesty's Court of Exchequer. 
See also a pamphlet, Co/one/ Fremont' s Private and Public Character Vindicated, 
by James Buchanan. 



432 Fremont and '49 

they returned to Washington in June, 1853, and took a house 
adjoining that of Senator Benton. 

In March, 1852, Congress had ordered to be undertaken, 
three lines of survey, "for overland travel and the prospective 
railway route, " and according to Mrs. Fremont her husband 
had been selected to head one of these expeditions.^ No 
name, however, being put into the bill, Jejfferson Davis, 
now Secretary of War, and doubtless not favourably 
disposed towards Fremont on account of his anti-slavery 
activity, named Captain Gunnison, instead. Fremont was 
not to be thwarted, however, in his determination to make 
the exploration he had long had in mind, and which he had 
failed in completing in 1849, and with funds of his own, and 
Senator Benton's, he organised in August, 1853, for the 
execution of his plan the following autumn and winter. 
'*He chose the dead of winter for his exploration, " says Ben- 
ton, "that he might see the worst — see the real difficulties 
and determine whether they could be vanquished. He 
believed in the practicability of the road and that his mis- 
carriage in 1848-49 was the fault of his guide, not of the 
country, and he was determined to solve those questions 
by the test of actual experience." This was to be his fifth 
expedition across the continent, and it was also to be a 
completion of the fourth which ended in the misfortune, 
heretofore described. 

The party consisted of twenty-two persons, among them 
ten Delaware chiefs, one of them "Solomon" who had been 
with Fremont before, and two Mexicans. Egloff stein was 
topographer, Strobel assistant, Oliver Fuller, assistant, 
W. H. Palmer, "passenger," and S. N. Carvalho artist and 
" daguerreotypist. " The record of the daguerreotypist, 
published in 1857, is the chief available source of information 
for the details of this expedition as far as the Mormon town 
of Parowan, and it is in this, and otherwise, a very interesting 

' Fremont's Memoirs, p. xv. He made a definite proposition to conduct 
surveys for the government. 



Picture Contest 433 

and valuable book.' Fremont, himself, published nothing 
except a brief paper, very general.^ 

Carvalho's "professional friends were all of the opinion 
that the elements would be against" his success in mak- 
ing daguerreotypes in the open air especially in winter, 
but he went well prepared and he met the difficulties 
admirably. 

Carvalho, Egloff stein, Fuller, and a photographist, Bomar 
met Fremont in St. Louis, in September, 1853, and together 
they proceeded to Kansas City on the steamer F. X. Aubrey, 
named in honour of the famous frontiersman before referred 
to. From the steamer landing (at what is now Kansas City) 
the baggage was sent by waggons to Westport a few miles 
back, where Fremont had fitted out at other times. Here 
a contest between the "wax process" photography of 
Bomar and the daguerreotype process of Carvalho was 
won by the latter on account of the long washing necessary 
for the photograph. Fremont decided this would cause 
much delay, and Bomar, therefore, and his outfit, were left 
behind. 

For arms each man had a rifle, of course a muzzle loader 
with "cap" priming, and a Colt's revolver, also muzzle 
loading, while some of the Delawares had "horsemen's 
pistols" also. The Delawares, with whom Fremont was on 
the most cordial terms — everyone of them would have 
ventured his life for him, says Carvalho — went to their 
homes to make preparations, and were to join the party 
about a hundred miles west. The baggage was apportioned 
at about sixty-five to ninety pounds for each mule, no 
wheeled vehicle being taken. The men's personal luggage 

' Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West with Colonel Fremont's 
Last Expedition, etc., by S. N. Carvalho, artist to the expedition, New York, 
Derby and Jackson, 1857. 

^ Letter of J. C. Fremont to the Editors of The National Intelligencer. 
June 13, 1854; appendix in'Bigelow's Life. " Colonel Fremont's Exploration 
of the Central Railroad Route to the Pacific," Senate Miscel. Document, No. 
67, 33d Congress, i st Session. 

28 



434 Fremont and '49 

was restricted to a certain weight, and all the balance was 
sent back to town. Making a trial start the caravan travel- 
led six miles and camped at the Methodist Mission, and the 
next day a few miles put them at the Shawnee Mission. 
Here Max Strobel joined the party as a volunteer, though 
at first Fremont was not inclined to add anyone else to his 
force. He was not feeling well and he concluded to return 
to Westport, taking Strobel with him to buy an outfit, and 
directing the others to proceed till they met the Delawares; 
then to wait for him. 

On September 24, 1853, therefore, the cavalcade of 
riders and pack-mules started westward while Fremont and 
Strobel went east. On the 27th the Delawares were met. 
"A more noble set of Indians, I never saw, the most of them 
six feet high, all mounted and armed cap-a-pie, under com- 
mand of Captain Wolf. Most of them spoke English and 
all understood it." On the 29th, Strobel came, bearing a 
letter from Fremont to Palmer, who was in charge, stating 
that it had become necessary for him to go back to St. Louis 
for medical advice, and ordering the advance of the outfit 
as far as the "Saline Fork" of the Kansas River, where there 
were plenty of buffalo, and to remain there. This was 
accordingly done. It was while in that camp waiting for 
Fremont's arrival that, in a discussion of possible candidates 
for the next Presidential campaign, Carvalho mentioned the 
name of " Colonel " Fremont. '' It was received, " he declares, 
"with acclamation, and he is the first choice of every man 
in the camp. " So far as I know this was the first nomination 
of the "Pathfinder" for the Presidency. 

But on this expedition for the first part of the route — 
that is as far as Green River — Fremont was far from being 
a pathfinder. On the contrary, the way he had planned to 
travel by Cochetope Pass had been traversed only a month 
or two before by his friend Beale, with a colleague named 
Heap, who got safely through to Parowan, Utah, notwith- 
standing that Wakara (Walker) the Ute chief was on the 



Prairie Fires 435 

war-path. ' There was said to be a price of fifteen thousand 
dollars on his head by the Mormons, whose new settlements, 
beyond the Wasatch, he was threatening, but this was not 
true. Instead Brigham Young had sent a present of tobacco 
and desired to be friendly with him. Furthermore, not only 
had Beale and Heap just made this passage, but Captain 
Gunnison, he who was reported to have been appointed to 
the command of the very expedition intended for Fremont, 
had left Westport, ahead of Fremont, June 16, 1853, and at 
this time was in the heart of the vast mid -region giving it a 
thorough examination for the prospective railway as he 
marched — the "Central Pacific Railroad. " Before Fremont 
had returned to lead his party forward, however. Captain 
Gunnison, R. H. Kern, who had been with Fremont on the 
1848 expedition, and was topographer of Gunnison's party, 
Creutzfeldt, one of the 1848 party, and several others, were 
surprised and killed by Utes near Sevier Lake, Utah, early 
on the morning of October 25, 1853. 

On the 30th of October, the Fremont camp was beginning 
to look anxiously for the coming of the leader. For some 
days the prairies were on fire towards the east and when the 
night dropped the clouds of rolling smoke took on the dra- 
matic and ominous, lurid, appearance well-known to dwellers 
on the plains in early days. The Dela wares prepared against 
the onslaught of fire by carrying everything down to the 
bank of the creek, and picketing the horses there. The belt 
of woods where the animals had foimd shelter a day before 
was soon left a blackened mass. The camp could not be 
moved far because Fremont might not easily discover its 
whereabouts. After breakfast on the last day of October, 
one of the Delawares uttered a yell as he pointed to an open 
space, and there came Fremont, followed by an immense 
man on an immense mule, and by the cook and Solomon the 
Delaware, galloping through the blazing element in the 

• He is called Walker and Wakara, the latter his native name, probably 
Wakar. 



436 Fremont and '49 

direction of our camp. " He had travelled over many miles 
of country which had been on fire. That midnight, the fire 
jumped the Kansas River. The next day on starting the 
"only escape was through the blazing grass; we dashed into 
it, Colonel Fremont at the head, . . . passed the fiery ordeal 
tinscathed, and made fifteen miles to the dry bed of a creek, 
beyond the reach of the devouring element." 

In several days they reached Bent's place, on the Arkansas, 
with no incident of importance but the loss of five animals. 
One of these, nearly exhausted, they recovered on the way, 
and the rest at Bent's, where also, in a village of about 150 
lodges, were the Cheyennes who had stolen them, and who 
frankly declared they would have taken more if they could. 
Bent's Fort, of the earlier time, had been recently destroyed 
by Indians, and Bent had re-established himself, thirty miles 
farther down stream, at this place. Two Indian teepees 
were procured, one large enough for the whole party, the 
other smaller for Fremont's individual shelter. Buffalo 
robes, moccasins, etc., were also purchased. 

After a week here, refitting, the caravan moved on, but 
without the big doctor (whose name was Ober), Fremont 
finding he no longer required his attention. Continuing 
up the Arkansas they passed the mouth of the Huerfano, and 
Huerfano Butte, where Carvalho enthusiastically exclaims: 
" If ever a railroad is built through this valley, I suggest that 
an equestrian statue of Col. J. C. Fremont be placed on the 
summit of Huerfano Butte; his right hand pointing to Cali- 
fornia, the land he conquered." Fremont has the credit, 
at any rate, of being the first to attempt a survey for a 
railway across the mountains. It was his determination to 
find out what kind of an obstacle the snows of winter would 
be, that led to the disaster of 1849, and is now leading him 
again through the high mountains at midwinter. Gunnison's 
surve}^ passed too early in the season to settle this important 
factor of snow, although he made what inquiries he could, 
and as yet no one had any exact knowledge of its quantity. 



Winter Arrives 437 

They entered the mountains, December 3d. Passing 
over the Wet Mountain Range as on the 1848 trip, and 
descending through the forbidding peaks of the Sangre de 
Cristo Range by way of the Sandhill Pass, into San Luis 
valley, they came upon, and followed, the trail of Gunnison, 
who had come over by Sangre de Cristo Pass, farther south. 
As Gunnison had a very large, well-equipped party with 
many waggons, there was no difficulty in seeing where he 
went. ^ They proceeded comfortably and leisurely along up 
the wide flat valley, past the present town of Saguache, 
latitude 38° 05' 43'' and longitude, 106° 08' 30", on Sawatch 
Creek, which flows down from Cochetope Pass. Near this 
they made a camp in a beautiful "park" where a dozen deer 
were secured. They remained several days to get more deer 
and dry the meat. The road up the creek to the summit of 
the Pass was easy, being very gradual in its ascent. The 
expedition was "travelling slowly along waiting for the 
winter," and up to this time had gone on dry ground. But 
when they reached Cochetope Pass on December 14, 1853, 
Fremont's desire for winter's presence was realised; winter 
set in with clouds, falling snow, and fogs. The snow soon 
was two and one-half feet deep on the ridges, four inches in 
the Pass, but very light in the valleys as Fremont had 
deduced it would be from his previous expeditions. He was 
much gratified to find his and Benton's opinion on this point 
confirmed by the experience on this expedition. 

Wherever the forest was an obstruction for waggons, the 
Gunnison party had felled the trees and it was now clear 
going for Fremont's pack train. On some trees crosses had 
been cut, but this was doubtless the work of Mexicans, who 
knew the pass for years back. Cochetope Pass has an 
altitude of 9088 feet (Wheeler). Its latitude is about 38° 
12' and longitude 106° 35'. It was the pass to which Fre- 

' See Pacific Railway Reports, vol. ii. Report by Lieut. E. G. Beckwith, 
3d Artillery, upon the route near the 38th and 39th parallels, explored by 
Capt. J. W. Gunnison, House Doc. 91 ; 33d Cong., 3d. Sess., 1855. 



438 Fremont and '49 

mont should have been guided in '48, but was not, owing 
perhaps to his declaring he wanted to go west by the head 
of the Rio Grande. Williams, his denounced guide, certainly 
well knew Cochetope Pass, and would have gone that way 
if he had understood. 

Gunnison had, as guide, another noted scout and frontiers- 
man, A. Leroux; while on this trip, Fremont took no guide at 
all. Heap describes the pass as "a wonderful gap, or more 
properly speaking, a natural gate, as its name denotes in the 
Utah language. On each side mountains rise in abrupt and 
rocky precipices. . . Cochetope signifies . . . Buffalo Gate, 
and the Mexicans have the same name for it, 'El Puerto de 
los Cibolos.' " Large numbers of buffalo formerly traversed 
this pass in both directions. Their heavy trails, and those 
of the Indians, told a story of many years of familiar use. 

Cochetope Creek, which heads on the west side of the 
Pass, led the caravan down to its mouth in what is now 
Gunnison River. From there they continued down the 
Gunnison as far as White Earth Creek where they cut across 
country, to avoid canyons, to the Uncompahgre River on 
about latitude 38° 30', and followed down the Uncompahgre 
to the Gunnison. Down the latter they went to the Grand, 
Keeping to the Grand till they got a little below 39°, they 
left it and crossed, on a westerly course, the sterile plateau 
between the Grand and Green, arriving at what is now 
Gunnison Valley, Green River, in Utah. Captain Gunnison 
on striking the Spanish trail, coming through this locality, 
from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, followed it and crossed the 
Green at the old, regular, crossing of this trail; latitude (ac- 
cording to Gunnison) 38° 57' 26", but Fremont, endeavouring 
to work more to the south, swung off in that direction, de- 
scended over some cliffs to the Green, and crossed it near the 
mouth of the San Rafael. Without great labour and risk 
he could not have gone farther down Green River than this 
(except in boats) because the deep, winding canyon, named by 
Powell Labyrinth, begins at th^ San Rafael. From this 




Little Fire Hole Falls 

Characteristic of hundreds of Rocky Mountain streams 
Photograph by United States Geological Survey 



A Pathfinder 439 

stream up to the exit of the Green from the jaws of Gray 
Canyon, some distance above the present town of Blake, 
(the crossing of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway) the 
valley is ruggedly picturesque, being studded with numerous 
striking buttes. For a day or two, we camped, in 187 1, at the 
mouth of the San Rafael, and Major Powell named an 
attractive architecturally formed butte a little above, after 
me. There were many evidences that the place was a 
favourite resort of the Utes, and even at that time there 
were no settlers anywhere in the region. From here Fre- 
mont went up the San Rafael, north-westerly to about Tid- 
well, or 39°, and then turned abruptly south and south-west 
along the eastern edge of the "San Rafael Swell," continu- 
ing to Fremont River (as Powell named it later) at about 
38° 20' and longitude 111°. Thence he turned west up 
Fremont River to Rabbit Valley, Utah; thence to Grass 
Valley on about 38° 25', just below Fish Lake; thence down 
Otter Creek to the East Fork Sevier, and down this, west to 
Circle Valley. Then up the Sevier, south, to about 38° 07' 
where he struck west, across a mountain, to and through 
what is now Fremont Pass, and came to the California Road 
not far above the settlement of Parowan. ^ 

From the time Fremont diverged from Gunnison's trail, 
just before reaching Green River, till he arrived at Circle 
Valley on the Sevier, or even at Fremont Pass, he was again 
something of a "pathfinder," for he travelled new ground. 
There may have been a branch of the Spanish Trail in this 
direction, as suggested on some old maps, in which case he 
may have travelled its course part of the time, but on the 
War Department map of i860, the region he is now traversing 
and much more, was represented by a blank. ^ It continued 

'This route is blocked out from the line as plotted on the map accom- 
panying Frdmont's Memoirs, from some of his statements, and from Carvalho's 
book. The latitude and longitude record I have not seen. 

' See this map: Territory and Military Department of Utah, Compiled in the 
Bureau of Topographical Engineers of the War Department, i860. On it is also 
plotted Escalante's trail from Utah Lake to Oraibe. 



440 Fremont and '49 

to be so represented, on authentic maps, till the Powell 
Survey explored and mapped it in 1 869-1 875. 

In 1872, with a detachment of this Survey, I came up 
from the south-west through part of this blank region, and 
our trail at that time, as I now perceive, reached at about 
longitude 111° 15' and latitude 38° 05' to within some fifteen 
miles of Fremont's path of eighteen years earlier, coming 
from the opposite direction. It was considered an unknown 
country; we could not find anyone in the scattered settle- 
ments of the Mormons, lying to the west, who knew any- 
thing about it, but they would not have been informed 
concerning the Wolf skill period (from 1830 on) of the Spanish 
Trail, when efforts doubtless were made to shorten the route 
between Santa Fe and Los Angeles. However, that may be 
Fremont could follow no such faint old trail, covered as the 
country now was by snow ; he had to find his own way. 

Having thus briefly sketched as far as Parowan, the line 
he is following, we will see how he fares in so boldly breaking 
across what was practically, if not absolutely, a region of 
unknown mountains and canyons. Winter travelling of this 
sort is not bad if one has plenty of blankets and food, that 
is, not for men, but for horses trying to live on grass it is 
almost impossible, and sufficient grain cannot be taken for a 
long period. In the low valleys and canyons of this region, 
some grass can usually be found on windswept places or on 
south slopes (in February I have seen it in latitude 36° 30,' 
green and growing at eight thousand feet where the snow had 
melted in some favourable nook), but deep snow prevents 
horses from pawing down and they soon grow thin and weak. 
We feel resolute enough with food at a comfortable camp, or 
house, but it is not pleasant to halt at nightfall on some drift- 
clad crest, the soft flakes falling, ever falling, nonchalantly, 
the maze of surrounding summits glimpsed bewilderingly 
through the flickering pall, and wonder where next to turn 
for a probable coiu-se, while the dimming light declines and 
the dull waste glides surely through deepening blues to 



Indians A^^aln 441 



-t) 



darkness. Those who have had this experience will bow to 
Fremont, for his nerve, or courage, if that is a better word, 
in pushing across the wintry wilderness of rugged mountains, 
unswervingly, to the distant goal he had set. 

While working their way through Grand River Valley 
the Fremont party were obliged to climb a steep mountain 
slope covered with snow. About half-way up, a leading 
mule fell and rolling down swept nearly the entire outfit, of 
fifty or more pack-animals several hundred feet to the 
bottom. Strangely enough only one mule and one horse 
were killed. A similar accident once happened to a 
Geological Survey party, but not one of the animals was 
seriously hurt. 

A little farther on the Delawares discovered a "wild" 
horse, young and fat, and killed it for food, the party now 
requiring every possible contribution to their food supplies. 
Moccasin tracks were seen about the same time and a special 
lookout was kept for an enemy. They soon came to a large 
village of Utes who received them well and camp was 
pitched at the place, in the Uncompahgre Valley, a favourite 
resort of the Uncompahgre Utes. 

Some venison was purchased from them, and all went 
well till about nine o'clock that night when there was a 
disturbance. A half-breed who knew some Spanish acted 
as interpreter for an angry committee of the Utes who 
surrounded Fremont's tent. It was learned that the horse 
that had been appropriated belonged to one of this band 
who had discovered the loss and pay was now demanded. 
Fremont kept within his lodge, which produced the desired 
impression on the Indians of his importance, and he com- 
municated through Carvalho. He directed that the horse 
should be paid for as the Utes clearly were in the right. 
They then wanted a share of everything, but Fremont ordered 
the men to refrain from trading or giving them a single 
article. On learning this, they threatened to attack, but 
he was not in the least alarmed. They were presently 



442 Fremont and '49 

pacified, and nothing further happened. With their women 
and children present they were not likely to bring on a fight 
with so large a party. 

Carvalho writes enthusiastically about his chief. 

In all the varied scenes of vicissitude, of suffering and excite- 
ment . . . during a voyage when the natural character of a 
man is sure to be developed, Col. Fremont never forgot he was 
a gentleman; not an oath, no boisterous ebullitions of temper. 
. . . Calmly and collectedly he gave his orders, and they 
were invariably fulfilled to the utmost of the men's abilities. 
. . . He would often entertain us [before the extreme hard- 
ships began] with his adventures on different expeditions. . . . 
Although on the mountains and away from civilisation, Col. Fre- 
mont's lodge was sacred from all and everything that was immod- 
est, light, or trivial; each and all of us entertained the highest 
regard for him. The greatest etiquette and deference were always 
paid to him, although he never ostensibly required it. Yet his 
reserved and unexceptionable deportment demanded from us 
the same respect with which we were always treated and which 
we ever took pleasure in reciprocating.^ 

Some thirty miles beyond, where a camp was made on 
Grand River, fifty or sixty of the Utes came riding threaten- 
ingly, armed with rifles and bows. They also demanded 
pay for the horse the Delawares had killed, insisting that it 
had not belonged to the other party. Fremont, again 
remaining out of sight, communicated through Carvalho, 
and believing the Indians had very little powder, he directed 
Carvalho, who was a fine shot, to put up a small piece of 
paper and impress them by firing at it with a revolver. 
Carvalho did this, and also allowed the Utes to try it. They 
realised the power of the new arms and became so much 
interested that they forgot all about their war threats. 
They were permitted to spend the night in the camp though 
Fremont ordered eleven men at a time on guard, fully armed. 

' Carvalho Travels, etc., p. 133. 



A Solemn Compact ' 443 

If the Indians had any intention of attack they found no 
opportunity and in the morning they went peacefully on 
their way. It is probable that they did not really intend to 
harm anyone, for they had been peaceable with Bcale and 
also with Gunnison. They blustered merely to see what they 
could get. 

The weather was extremely cold, and crossing Grand 
River was a difficult undertaking, particularly as there was 
heavy ice along the banks on both shores, the middle water 
running too fast to freeze. There were two hundred yards 
of this open water about six feet deep. Sand was spread 
over the surface of the ice to prevent slipping and the pack- 
animals were then driven in, while the riders on horseback, 
following Fremont's example, plunged off into the chilling 
flood, their clothes, saturated, freezing stiff as soon as they 
emerged on the farther side. The Delawares went over 
among the first and built a huge fire by which all dried their 
clothes on their persons. 

Steadily their food supplies disappeared, and could not 
be replenished with game. Hunting is either a business or a 
pleasure; in either case it takes time. It became necessary 
to kill a horse. It was a solemn event, says Carvalho. 
Fremont called the men together, related how the party he 
sent out for relief on his last expedition "had been guilty of 
eating one of their own number, ' ' and vigorously condemning 
such an act declared: "If we are to die, let us die together 
like men." And he further declared that he would shoot 
any man that even hinted at such a proposition. The twenty- 
two men clasped hands and with a "So help me God.l" made 
a compact to stand by each other to the end, whatever it 
might be. This dramatic scene occurred at night by the 
camp-fire on Eagle Tail River before they reached the 
Green. That night Fuller, the sentry, saw and shot a beaver 
which was cooked for breakfast. 

Crossing the barren stretch between the Grand and the 
Green, which a little farther south becomes a wild bewilder- 



444 Fremont and '49 

ing labyrinth of canyons, cliffs, and multitudinous pinnacles 
and buttes, even now avoided, they descended at the end of 
January, as already mentioned, over some cliffs, to the 
banks of the latter river. Arriving at the water (altitude 
4075 feet above sea-level) they saw on the other side a 
number of Indians. On crossing to them, the caravan was 
led to the nearby village. Here it was hoped some food 
might be obtained, but the Utes had only grass seed ; and 
even this was scarce. They parted with what they could 
spare, and it was discovered to be highly nutritious. To this 
was added the meat of a lame horse piirchased, and for a 
time, the pangs of hunger were relieved. A porcupine was 
shot a little later, and was consumed. 

The horses and mules fared badly as they were compelled 
to travel during the day, and at night the snow and cold 
prevented their getting much, if anything, to eat. The 
Indian horses were in good condition, for they were not in 
use and they had time to browse in clear places for food. 
The pole of the great lodge was broken, and the men were 
deprived of its shelter, sleeping now in the open, covered at 
times with snow. But this was not as objectionable as it 
may sound to those who never have slept that way. Dry 
snow keeps one warm; I have slept with entire comfort 
under a foot of it. Fremont had his small skin lodge 
which was taken along Indian fashion, the poles dragging 
from a horse's neck and the skin cover laid on the poles. 
At last it was imperative to leave much of the baggage 
behind in order to make time and provide mounts for the 
men, twenty-seven animals having been killed for food by 
this time. 

All instruments, extra clothes, blankets, cloth, pack- 
saddles, were wrapped in the large buffalo-skin covering of 
the great lodge and buried in the snow and covered with 
brush. Only necessities henceforth were to be carried and 
now each man once more had a mount; but Fremont still 
kept his own lodge. 



Horse Meat Food 445 

When an animal gave out he was .shot down by the Indians 
[Delawares] who immediately cut his throat and saved the blood 
in a camp kettle. . . . The animal was divided into twenty- 
two parts as follows: Two, for Col. Fr(^mont and Lee, his cook; 
ten for the Delawares; and ten for ours. Col. Fr6mont, 
hitherto had messed with his officers; at this time he requested 
that we should excuse him, as it gave him pain and recalled to 
his mind the horrible scenes which had been enacted during his 
last expedition. * 

Each animal killed was intended to serve the outfit for six 
meals, but some of the men ate their full allowance at once. 
After this every animal killed placed a man on foot, and 
they were killed only at regular intervals. The carcasses 
were utilised to the limit; even the entrails were "well 
shaken" and boiled with snow (they had no water) and this 
process produced "a highly flavoured soup, peculiar to 
itself. The hide was roasted so as to burn the hair and 
make it crisp, the hoofs and shins were disposed of by regular 
rotation."^ 

In this way they lived for nearly fifty days. Once they 
camped where there was no wood, and had no fire, starting 
on again next morning without the suggestion of a breakfast. 
Sometimes they collected cactus leaves, put them in the 
fire a moment to burn off the spines, and then ate them. 
The taste resembled " an Irish-potato peeling." Often the 
animals had to be watered by melting snow in the camp 
kettles. They were working through the Wasatch Moun- 
tains, or rather through their southern extension, now known 
as the High Plateaus, whose eastern and extreme southern 
edges form the Rim of the Basin in those quarters. 

One day as they were struggling up a mountain Fremont, 
himself, suddenly felt his strength vanishing. He could 
scarcely proceed. Without mentioning his condition to 
anyone, he immediately declared a spot nearby to be ex- 
cellent for a camp, and ordered a stop. The next morning 

' Carvalho Travels, etc., p. 125. 'Ibid., pp. 125-126. 



44^ Fremont and '49 

he was able to go on, and his men did not know his predica- 
ment. During all this time he did not neglect his astro- 
nomical observations. No matter how cold, or how deep the 
snow, if conditions were otherwise favourable he would 
stand for hours making observations. In this work he was 
assisted by Carvalho. After one of these observations 
(evidently in Circle Valley about latitude 38° 10', longitude, 
112° 15') he informed Carvalho that the little Mormon 
settlement of Parowan was beyond the mountains, im- 
mediately ahead, and that he expected to reach it in three 
more days. But the snow was deep in Panguitch Canyon; 
progress was impossible, and over the mountain the Dela- 
wares were sure no one could pass. Fremont said it must 
be done and he started ahead breaking a path, up the steep 
ascent of 45° and 1000 feet. The rest followed and at last 
the climb was accomplished. From the summit they saw 
beyond into a country of more ranges of snow-covered 
mountains. "For the first time," exclaims Carvalho, 
"my heart failed me." Not only were most of the party 
now on foot but they were nearly barefoot. Their feet 
were tied up in bits of raw hide, old cloth, or any stuff that 
would protect. They were all famished and near the end of 
human endurance except the Delawares, who, conserving 
their allotments of food, stood up to the privations much 
better than the white men, and came out of the ordeal in 
comparatively good condition. Probably Kit Carson, 
Fitzpatrick, Godey, and others of their kind would have 
found these hardships less destructive. 

When all had rested Fremont consulted his pocket 
compass and, pointing in a certain direction, began the 
descent, and by noon they were in " a defile of the mountains." 
This was Fremont Pass about latitude 38° 07', longitude, 
112° 30', and westward through it they tramped camping 
"about two o'clock in a valley with plenty of grass. " Deer 
tracks were noticed which caused Fremont to offer a rifle 
to the man who first got a deer. After several hours, Welu- 



Death of Fuller 447 

chas, a Delaware, returned with a fine buck, and carried 
off the prize. 

A few days before they came down into the valley, 
February i, 1854, OHver Fuller, assistant engineer began to 
lag. At the start he had been one of the strongest and 
perhaps was too lavish of his strength as generous men are 
apt to be. He could not keep up, and Egloffstcin and Car- 
valho tried to help him on but this resulted only in all three 
being kept far back of the main body. They were all on 
foot. Fuller directed them to leave him, and send assistance. 
There was no wood for fire, so wrapping him in a blanket 
that he had on his back the other two started to reach camp. 
Snow began to fall. The night was black. It was ten 
o'clock before they got to the camp-fires. Fremont then sent 
a Mexican on horseback, with cooked meat, and a free 
horse to bring the disabled man to camp. The snow fell 
furiously. At daybreak nothing had been heard of either. 

Three Delawares were sent next, and by ten o'clock one 
returned with the Mexican and his horse. The Mexican 
had been lost. Near dark the two other Delawares came 
with Fuller. He was almost at his last breath and badly 
frozen, his feet black to his ankles. Three days the party 
remained in this camp in the effort to revive and invigorate 
poor Fuller, but when they proceeded it took a Delaware on 
each side to hold him on the horse. Fuller died February 
7th on horseback almost in sight of relief, but he was so 
badly frozen he probably could not have recovered. He 
then was wrapped in his rubber blanket and laid across the 
trail. Not long after this they came to the waggon-road 
which connected the Mormon settlements along the west 
flanks of the Wasatch mountains, and also led to California 
by the Virgin River route. The ruts were plainl}'- indi- 
cated by depressions in the snow. A band of Utes under 
Wakara's brother Arapeen was met, and one of them 
remembering Fremont probably from his former journey 
through here — for he was now near his camp of May 13, 



44S Fremont and '49 

1844 — ^presented him with a dog. This meat, with some 
flour traded for, gave the exhausted men a feast. The 
party camped and the next day, February 8th, after several 
miles, arrived at the town of Parowan, and there pitched 
camp just out of its bounds, once more in touch with homes 
and supplies. Parowan (altitude 5970 feet above sea) was a 
settlement of about a hundred families, which had been 
established since Fremont's passage this way on the 1843- 
44 trip. A party was sent back to bury Fuller and found the 
body imdisturbed. 

"Every family took in some of the men, putting them 
into warm rooms and clean comfortable beds, and kind- 
faced women gave them reviving food and pitying words. 
Mr. Fremont's letters could not say enough of the gentle, 
patient care of these kind women. "^ He appreciated so 
much the kindness received at this time, that he never could 
be induced to even appear to express any disapproval of 
these people, and many years later when Kate Field, a bitter 
opponent of Mormons, endeavoured to get Fremont to 
introduce her in her lecture on the subject at Los Angeles, he 
tried to excuse himself, but as she persisted he finally said, 
"I cannot do it. The Mormons saved me and mine from 
death by starvation in '54 and I could not introduce you. "^ 

Mrs. Fremont was almost ill from anxiety during the 
last two weeks of the time that her husband was undergoing 
this severe exposure with his men, but on the night of Feb- 
ruary 6th, being kept up late by some of her young people 
returning from a party she was suddenl}^ and strangely 
relieved of all apprehension, by a sort of telepathic com- 
munication, the story of which she relates entertainingly.^ 
She believed it a distinct example of thought-transference 
telling her of his arrival at Parowan, and as their two minds 

^ Far West Sketches, by Jessie Benton Fremont — "How the Good News 
came out of the West. " 

' Miss Fremont's Recollections, p. 73. 

3 Far West Sketches, "How the Good News Came out of the West." See 
also Miss Fremont's Recollections. 



Recuperating 449 

were so thoroughly one, if such things actually occur it 
would have been likely to happen to them. Apparently, 
however, it was not the 6tli of February on which the 
famishing party reached Parowan, but the 8th, according to 
a letter of the 9th addressed by Fremont to Benton and sent 
that very day by the Territorial Secretary, Babbitt, who 
happened to be going from Parowan to Salt Lake and 
Washington. In his letter to The National Intelligencer^ 
Fremont also says he came out of the mountains on the 7th 
and arrived at the settlement February 8th, and Carvalho 
dates his sojourn at Parowan from the 8th. Fuller died on 
the 7th, according to Carvalho, and this was before they 
arrived at the settlement. If these dates are correct, the 
extraordinary sensations of Mrs. Fremont either did not so 
exactly coincide in point of time with the thoughts of hef 
husband in far-off Parowan, or she made a mistake in stating 
the date of her experiences. 

The party remained till the 21st, recuperating and re- 
fitting. The settlers said the winter was the most severe 
they had experienced here. Egloffstein and Carvalho 
were so badly used up that they were obliged to go to Salt 
Lake in a waggon, but Fremont, with a smaller retinue made 
ready to strike across the Great Basin deserts and the Sierra 
Nevada, to complete this railway survey to the Pacific. 

*The National Intelligencer, June 15, 1854. 
39 




CHAPTER XX 

POLITICS, WAR, AND FINANCE 

No Obstacle to a Railway — Benton's Defeat — Sutter Goes Down — Fremont 
Continues West from Parowan — Crossing Nevada — Balked by the 
Sierra — Reasons for a Railway to the Pacific — Nominated for the Pre- 
sidency — A Bitter Campaign — No Help from Benton — Champion of 
Freedom — Defeat — Mariposa Again — Fighting Claim-jumpers — Financial 
Complications — Bret Harte and Black Point — A Major-General — 
Emancipation Proclamation — Relieved of Command — The Virginia 
Campaign — Mariposa Revived — Fr6mont Loses — A Major-General 
once more — Across the Range — New York's Monument. 

ALTHOUGH Mrs. Fremont's mind was relieved by the 
strange occurrences which she so entertainingly 
writes about, the general public was of the impression 
that Fremont and his whole party, not having been heard 
from for so long, had been annihilated by the winter storms 
in the wilderness. It was not till Babbitt on his way east 
by way of Panama published in California, in April, 1854, 
an account of his meeting with the explorers, that the 
people understood the situation. Carvalho had written 
East and this information was printed in a Philadelphia 
paper about the same time. The National Intelligencer of 
April 12, 1854, printed Fremont's letter to Benton, congrat- 
ulating Benton on the verification which this expedition 
had made of his judgment concerning obstacles, in winter, to 
the operation of a trans-continental railway. The advocacy 
of such a railway neither Benton nor Fremont had ever 
neglected. They both believed it in every respect entirely 
practicable and met every doubter with definite information ; 
and now Fremont had settled the question of snow blockade. 
Later he wrote: "From the day when my connection with 

. 450 _ 



Pro-Slavery Blight 451 

the army was dissolved, I have considered my Hfe conse- 
crated to the construction of this Pacific Road."' 

Benton, however, was no longer able to keep the idea 
before Congress from the vantage ground of a senator, for, 
owing to his opposition to slavery, the people of Missouri, 
even after all his admirable service for thirty years, deliber- 
ately refused to send him back; a forerunner of the storm 
which, before long, was to rack and rend to its foundations 
the republic from sea to sea. Those who declared slavery 
wrong were charged with doing it from a wicked desire to 
disrupt the country, and Benton though one of the greatest, 
most patriotic men of his time, outranking, in some re- 
spects, even Webster and Clay, was made to feel the blighting 
power of the pro-slavery element.^ With regard to west- 
ern lands, he certainly possessed wider vision than any other 
American, and as we have seen, it was largely due to his 
enthusiasm, force, and intelligence, that the country was 
examined by Fremont, and that Fremont was on the ground 
when it was possible he would be needed. While Benton 
opposed forcible acquisition of California, he did not intend 
to let it slip when opportunity came. Fremont was to take 
such steps in 1846 as he deemed necessary and his resigna- 
tion was sent, in a timely way, to Benton, to enable the 
government if found expedient to disavow his acts. 

Fremont had failed of re-election to the Senate from Cali- 
fornia because of his opposition to slavery; and the slavery 
question was rapidly becoming the political guillotine of many 
men who opposed it. Even those who apparently escaped 
destruction at the time were often followed by a vague 
public dislike and denunciation, both North and South, to 
their very graves. 

Another of the important characters that have moved 
before us in this life drama of Western Expansion, was now 

I Letter to Thomas Starr King, Sept. 4, 1 856. 

' For Benton's career see: The Life of Thomas Hart Benton, by William M. 
Meigs, Phila., 1904, and also Theodore Roosevelt's Thomas Hart Benton, 1887. 



452 Fremont and '49 

meeting with adverse circumstances though, in his case, 
slavery ideas were not a factor. This was John A. Sutter, 
the once good friend of everybody, and everybody's friend. 
His biographer says, "he was bankrupted by thieves." He 
was caught between the technicahties of the law, like Daniel 
Boone. Not knowing exactly where his granted bounds 
were, and being unable for so long, through the dilatory 
action of the American usurpers to find out, he conveyed 
more land than he could establish ownership to under the 
new rulings, and the settlement of the claims consumed his 
fortune. "Despoiled of his estates and his flocks, and be- 
coming financially involved in his land suits, his credit be- 
came impaired . . . till he finally, as the sad act of his life, 
mortgaged away his Hock farm.""^ Generous to the last 
degree with every man; having helped unrecorded numbers 
in multitudinous and vital ways; having been the sheet- 
anchor and the strong refuge of hundreds in the beginnings of 
California; this excellent man, at last, was obliged to turn his 
back on his chosen state and end his hampered days in a 
small hamlet of the East. Justice seems not only blind but 
sometimes a cormorant of avarice. Fremont, despite the 
blows which he and his father-in-law, Benton, had suffered, 
still retained enthusiasm and optimism. He believed he 
could accomplish the solution of the problem of a trans- 
continental railway, as no one else could, and it may be 
stated here that almost every railway survey across the 
western region followed near one, or the other, of his own 
early exploring trails, and that the lines operating to-day 
are frequently built along these trails, no line as yet, however, 
having been built on his present route. In 1848 he had made 
a proposition to Congress to continue his explorations and sur- 
veys but tliough reported favourably by the committee with 
a motion to appropriate $30,000 it was not authorised. ^ 

^ The Life and Times of John A. Sutter, by T. J. Schoonover. Sacramento, 
1907. P- 216. 

' For text of the committee's report see Bigelow's Life, Appendix A, p. 467. 



Westward Again 453 

From Parowan, two routes 

suggested themselves to mc for examination ; one directly across 
the plateau, between the 37th and 38th parallels, the other keep- 
ing to the south of the mountains, and following for about two 
hundred miles down a valley of Rio Virgen — Virgin River — thence 
direct to the Tejon Pass at the head of the San Joaquin Valley/ 

As this route had been examined the year before by a 
Mormon party, and as he had come up that way in 1844, 
he decided to take the more direct way, especially as the 
Mormons told him that all their efforts in that direction had 
failed for want of water, and he "determined to examine it in 
the interest of geography." He therefore proceeded about 
eighteen miles south to another new Mormon settlement called 
Cedar City, at the south-eastern side of the Escalante Desert, 
making no effort to send back for the goods he recently had 
cached in the mountains. Carvalho came this way a few 
weeks later and described Cedar City as having a thousand 
population, with an adobe wall twelve feet high completely- 
surrounding it. Carvalho was on his way with a party of 
Mormon missionaries, to California by the Virgin River 
route, the missionaries destined for the Sandwich Islands, 
and he " daguerreotyped " as he went, sketching also. 

From Cedar City Fremont, for a short distance, followed 
the California Road and then struck west across the Esca- 
lante desert, into the Unknown. Snow fell occasionally, 
during the next month, sometimes accompanied by hail and 
thunder, but there was no snow on the valley bottoms, and 
that which fell melted away rapidly as soon as the storm 
ceased. They came to the present west boundary of Utah at 
about the 38th parallel, and entered the table-laiic of Nevada 

bristling with mountains, often in short isolated blocks and 
sometimes accumulated into considerable ranges, with numerous 
open and low passes. We were thus always in a valley and 
' Letter of June 13, 1854, to The National Intelligencer. 



454 Fremont and '49 

always surrounded by mountains more or less closely, which 
apparently altered in shape and position as we advanced. The 
valleys are dry and naked without water or wood ; but the moun- 
tains are generally covered with grass and well wooded with pines. 
Springs are very rare and occasionally small streams are at 
remote distances. Not a human being was encountered between 
the Santa Clara Road near the Mormon settlements and the 
Sierra Nevada, over a distance of more than three hundred 
miles. Commencing at the 38th we struck the Sierra Nevada on 
about the 37th parallel about March 15th. 

This crossing of Nevada began not far from the present 
town of Pioche (altitude above sea 6000 feet), and continued 
on rather a straight course south-westerly to a little north 
of Thorp, on the Las Vegas and Tonopah railway. Thence 
they went south meeting the California boundary, at about 
the 37th parallel, on March 15, 1854. Continuing west- 
ward to the first range of the Sierra they climbed on March 
i6th and 17th to an altitude of 8000 or 9000 feet to be 
blocked in that direction by deep snow as Fremont had 
anticipated they probably would be, as he knew very well, 
of course, what might be expected. Having no object in 
forcing a passage, he consequently returned to the valley and 
bore sharply to the south, not far out from the eastern foot of 
the Sierra, to reach a lower portion in that direction. In this 
region they attacked a party of Indians and took their horses, 
the Indians escaping. Travelling about sixty or eighty miles 
south he looked for a pass, knowing that if he did not 
find one he could go over by "either of Walker's passes" 
evidently meaning Walker's Pass or the Tehachapi.^ He 
found numerous openings, and as the party, by this time, 
was entirely out of provisions and living on horse meat, he 
took the first pass that offered. This appears to have been a 
little south of Walker Pass. By an open and level hollow 

' He seems not yet to have discovered that Walker's northern pass led into 
the Yosemite Valley, and that Tehachapi was not one of Walker's passes — 
that is, not one he had discovered. 




W £ 



The Completing Link 455 

thirteen miles long, probably Bird Spring Canyon, thej'- went 
over to a small branch of Kern River, "the hollow and the 
valley making together a way where a waggon would not find 
any obstruction for forty miles." There was no snow in 
this pass. Spring flowers were blooming and, so far as 
winter was concerned, their difficulties were ended. He was 
certain that nothing existed on the route he had followed 
through from the Arkansas, to prevent the building and 
operating of a railway. 

It seems a treason [he declared] against mankind and the spirit 
of progress which marks the age to refuse to put this one com- 
pleting link to our national prosperity, and the civilisation of the 
world. Europe still lies between Asia and America; build this 
railroad and things will have revolved about; America will lie 
between Asia and Europe — the golden vein which runs through 
the history of the world will follow the iron track to San 
Francisco.' 

About the first of May he arrived at San Francisco and 
was there tendered a public dinner which he declined as he 
desired to leave for Washington and New York where he 
arrived, by way of the Isthmus (which now had a railway), 
in May, 1854, to lay his plans and reports before Congress. 
In the spring of 1855 he went to New York with his family, 
and his name began to be mentioned for the Presidency. 
During the winter of 1855 and 1856 he worked constantly at 
the studio of the photographer Brady, helping to make 
into photographs the daguerre plates which Carvalho had 
taken, and the painter Hamilton, of Philadelphia, had a 
room in his house where he reproduced some of the views in 
oil colours. George Childs was to publish the story of the 
various expeditions, but Fremont now found no time for 
writing. The contract was at length cancelled, though the 
material was carefully preserved. 

In April of 1856 Fremont was invited to attend a public 

' Letter of June 13, 1854, to The National Intelligencer. 



45^ Fremont and '49 

meeting in New York to secure an expression of opinion on 
the events taking place in Kansas, and the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, now matters of general history, con- 
nected with the anti-slavery agitation and not necessary 
to enter into here. 

Owing to other engagements he was not able to accept, 
but he wrote, saying: 

I heartily concur in all movements which have for their object 
'to repair the mischief arising from the violation of good faith 
in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.' I am opposed to 
slavery in the abstract and upon principle, sustained and made 
habitual by long settled convictions. While I feel inflexible in 
the belief that it ought not to be interfered with where it exists, 
under the shield of State Sovereignty, I am as inflexibly opposed 
to its extension on this continent beyond its present limits. 

It was said that Governor Floyd of Virginia in 1855, on 
behalf of the Democratic party, offered him the Presidential 
nomination. Fremont said the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise made it impossible for him to consider it from 
that party. 

On the 17th, i8th, and 19th of June, 1856, a convention, 
assembled at Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia, of rep- 
resentatives of those opposed to the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise; to the policy of the existing Administration; 
to the extension of slavery into free territory ; and in favour 
of the admission of Kansas as a free State; nominated on 
June 1 8th, John C. Fremont, for President. The pro-slavery 
parties had already nominated two separate tickets, Fill- 
more and Donelson; and Buchanan and Breckenridge. ^ 
The New York Times of June 19, 1856, said: 

The Path-Finder of the Rocky Mountains, the chivalric 
John C. Fremont, the type and embodiment of the spirit of 

^ [Ex-] Commodore R. F. Stockton was also nominated but deemed it wise 
to retire. He had first been pitted against Buchanan as a candidate. 



Benton vs. Fremont 457 

Young America, was yesterday afternoon nominated on the 
first ballot, by the Republican Convention in Philadelphia, as 
their candidate for the Presidency. At the first trial he received 
nearly two thirds of the whole vote of the convention, and was 
then nominated by unanimous consent. Such a degree of 
unanimity and enthusiasm as this has had no example in the 
political history of the country. . . . 

William L. Dayton, Senator of the United States, was 
named for vice-president, Abraham Lincoln having been his 
competitor. And thus the new Republican party put forth 
its first candidates for these great offices. Abraham Lincoln 
was at the head of the Fremont electoral ticket for Illinois, 
and made about fifty speeches in all parts of the State. If 
anyone expected Thomas H. Benton to support his son-in- 
law in this three-sided race, he was disappointed. Benton 
was too loyal a Democrat to desert his party under any 
circumstances. In a speech delivered as candidate for 
governor of Missouri, he declared: 

I will assist the new president (for I look upon Mr. Buchan- 
an's election as certain) in doing what I am sure he will do, that 
is to say, all in his power to preserve the peace of the country at 
home and abroad, and to restore the fraternal feelings between the 
different sections of the Union now so lamentably impaired. . . . 
It is unnecessary for me to speak of these [other] parties : I adhere 
to my own, and support it, and that to the exclusion of all the 
rest. One only I allude to — one with which the name of a member 
of my family is connected, and in reference to which some persons 
who judge me by themselves . . . attribute to me a sinister con- 
nection ... I am above family and above self, when the good 
of the Union is concerned.' 

"The Fremont ratification meeting in Newark, N. J., on 

'From speech at the Buchanan ratification meeting, St. Louis, June 21, 
1856, — reported in New York Times, ]\xne 27th. In response to a request for 
material to be used in preparing a memoir of Fremont, Benton repHed to the 
New York Times, "As I am entirely opposed to that movement, I can do 
nothing to promote it in any way." New York Times, Aug. 19, 1856. 



458 Fremont and '49 

Monday evening, " says the New York Herald of Thursday, 
July 3, 1856, "was the most enthusiastic poHtical gathering 
which has been called together since the days of 'Tippecanoe 
and Tyler too.' "Fremont and Victory' was the cry."^ 

Fillmore repeatedly declared that "in the event of the 
election of Colonel Fremont to the Presidency, the Southern 
States in a body, ought to, and will, withdraw from the 
Union. "^ Preston Brooks said the issue was Union or Dis- 
union. Fremont was charged with being a sectional candi- 
date, the nominee of the abolitionists, and Buchanan, Slidell, 
and Toombs, were exactly of the same mind as Fillmore, 
and Brooks ; in fact the entire body of Southern politicans was 
practically unanimous in this attitude. The fight waxed more 
and more bitter. Fremont, on the one side, was regarded 
as a traitor endeavouring to destroy the Union, his anti- 
slavery attitude a mere pretext ; on the other as a bulwark 
to prevent the expansion of slavery; by the extreme aboli- 
tionists as one who would immediately rend the shackles 
and decree Emancipation. The former, and indeed all his 
opponents, found no charge too reckless, no lies or slanders 
too despicable, for their presentation. Seldom has a cam- 
paign been marked by niore wretched "mud-slinging" as 
it is called, though all the candidates themselves were 
dignified. Besides Lincoln, many men later prominent 
in the Union cause "took the stump" for Fremont. Among 
these was Whitelaw Reid, then editor of the Xenia (Ohio) 
News. 

The enthusiasm for Fremont was, of course, confined to 
the northern, non-slave States, and even there largely to one 
class, for the Democrats of that section of the Republic 
had not yet found themselves unequivocally on the side 
of anti-slavery and the Union, as they so admirably did a 
few years later. But at the same time, it is certain that 

'For letter of acceptance dated July 8, 1856, see Bigelow's Life, p. 456 
et seq. 

» Editorial New York Herald, July 13, 1856. 



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Campaign Songs 459 

there were a great many people in the South who were 
opposed to slavery, but who were whipped into line, or 
into silence, by the politicians, especially after the election of 
i860. The Republicans sang many ringing campaign songs: 

Champion of Freedom! Hail to thee! 

A million eyes with pride will flame, 
To see the Goddess Liberty, 

Adorn her standard with thy name, 
That glorious flag of stripes and stars, 

Borne westward by thy daring hand. 
Through tempests and o'er mountain bars. 

And planted on Pacific's strand. 

Columbus of the golden West, 

As he returned from Salvador, 
So thou b}^ jealousy oppressed, 

The path of honour travelled o'er, 
But Time is just, and Glory now. 

With busy fingers, joyful weaves 
A diadem to grace thy brow. 

Of mystic boughs and laurel leaves, etc. 

The most famous brought in the phrase, "Free soil, free 
men, and Fremont": 

All hail to Fremont ! sWell the lofty acclaim 

Like winds from the mountain, like prairies aflame! 

Once more the Pathfinder is forth on his hunt, 

Clear the way for free soil, for free men, and Fremont! 

We '11 spurn every fetter, we '11 break every rod. 
And Kansas shall bloom like the Garden of God, 
When we plant the white banner of Freedom upon 't. 
And cry, "To the rescue, free men and Fremont!" 

Oh! the land that we love shall be sacred from slaves 
From the tyrant's misrule, and the plunder of knaves. 
We '11 baptise the Union in Liberty's font, 
And the faith of our Fathers shall live with Fremont! etc. 



460 Fremont and '49 

And Mrs. Fremont came in for her share of songs : 

She 's wise and she 's prudent ; she 's good and she 's bonnie ; 

For virtue and valour she takes a brave stand, 
For the Chieftain's White Mansion, she 's better than onie, 

So give her "God Speed" there the flower o' the land, etc. 

It was at this time that Fremont was charged with being a 
Catholic because he put a cross on Independence Rock, and 
for other equally foolish reasons, there being at that time an 
objection against Catholics in public office, fostered by the 
Know-nothing party. He declined to make his religion a 
matter of politics. Ramsay Crooks wrote a letter to the 
newspapers denouncing Fremont's pretensions to being the 
discoverer of South Pass when he had never made any such 
pretensions. Somebody else said he was born in Montreal; 
and so it was all along the line. Every shred of his past, 
present, and future was magnified a thousand diameters, 
misrepresented, and torn to bits, by the opposition, while the 
other side exaggerated his "Pathfinding" experience. At 
this time he lived at 56 West 9th Street, New York. One 
of a visiting delegation thus describes him: 

In the midst of the group sat a small, intense, earnest, deter- 
mined looking man, who bore the traces of hardships and toil, 
yet his countenance beamed with such an expression of good 
nature that it seemed to preserve a magnetic attraction for his 
guests. . . . His hair, parted down the middle ^ swept in grace- 
ful luxuriance over his broad, high, temples; his feet were encased 
in a pair of light slippers; he wore neither suspenders nor vest, 
and his coat was of calico thrown carelessly across his shoulders. 
. . . Intelligence was breathed in every utterance; resolution 
was portrayed upon every feature; modesty, ability, integrity 

^ Mrs. Fremont said he never parted his hair, and he generally did not, 
but at times it is plain that he parted it in the middle. There is a story that 
Benton at first objected to him as a prospective son-in-law on this account. 
Parting a man's hair in the middle was little short of a crime in the Far West 
in early days. 



Opinion of Carl Schurz 461 

were written as plainly as the alphabet upon the whole man. . . . 
I have yet to see an engraving of Fremont that does him justice. 
The features may be faithfully delineated, but his eye — I never 
saw one with such an earnest expression, such a vivid intensity.* 

Another visitor said: 

The prints fall exceedingly short of doing justice to his 
appearance . . . utterly fail to give one the idea of that rare 
union of gentleness, refinement, and delicacy, with resolute 
energy and firmness, which are so remarkable in his features and 
in the expression of his countenance. His whole air and manner, 
tones and voice and way of speaking are those of a quiet, modest, 
gentle, and sincere, yet firm and earnest man, in whom the 
intellectual and moral faculties are in fine harmony. . . .^ 

Carl Schurz declares: 

The Republican platform sounded to me like a bugle call of 

liberty, and the name of Fremont, the Pathfinder, surrounded 
by a halo of adventurous heroism, mightily stirred the imagina- 
tion. Thus the old cause of human freedom was to be fought 
for on the soil of the new world. The great final decision seemed 
to be impending. . . . When, after the November election, the 
returns had all come in — I would not abandon hope until I had 
seen them all — and our defeat was certain, I felt as if I had 
suffered an immeasurable personal misfortune. ^ 

The late John Bigelow, who wrote the excellent Life 
and Services of John C. Fremont for the New York Evening 
Post, as a campaign document (printed at the rate of 
two or three columns a week), called on Fremont at the 
Metropolitan Hotel with several others, prospective of the 
nomination. 

Many years afterward he wrote: 

' Letter in the New York Times, October 30, 1856. 
»C. S. Henry to General Swift, New York Times, October 9, 1856. 
3 The Reminiscences oj Carl Schurz, 1829-1863, N. Y., 1907, vol. ii., pp. 
67 and 71. 



462 Fremont and '49 

He impressed me more favourably than I had expected- 
His manner was refined and dignified. ... I am persuaded 
now, as I was then, that it was impossible to have selected 
another equally available candidate for our purpose. 

I became as fully convinced before the colonel died that, 
much as the country was to be congratulated for his nomination, 
it was equally to be congratulated upon his defeat. He was in 
no proper sense a statesman. He owed such success as he had 
at this election — and it was very flattering — largely to his wife, a 
remarkably capable and accomplished woman; to her father, 
through whose influence with the Democratic portion of the coali- 
tion he was naturally expected to profit and his utterly neuter 
gender in politics. He rendered his country as a candidate all 
the service he was capable of rendering it, by incarnating in 
that character the principles of the Free Soil Party, and thus 
combining in the free states the forces upon which the perpetuity 
of our Union was to be dependent, and the doctrine of popular 
sovereignty vindicated as it had never been before. He lived 
long enough, however, to satisfy everyone that he might have 
proved a disastrous failure as a president. A wedge may be 
useful in splitting a log but useless in converting either of its 
parts into a chest of drawers.^ 

One hesitates to differ from so distinguished an authority 
as John Bigelow, but I venture to think he is not entirely 
right on some of these points. As for the influence of 
Benton, I have previously quoted directly from him to show 
that he was absolutely opposed to Fremont in this campaign, 
and refused any aid to him or his party. While Mrs. Fremont 
was exactly the accomplished and capable woman Bigelow 
says, Fremont's success, in this matter, was due mainly to 
the way in which his extraordinary Western experiences 
stirred the imagination ; there seems to be no question about 
this. He was a "neuter gender" in politics only because he 
was the first candidate of a party which was as much of a 
"neuter gender" then as was its candidate. The latter 

^Retrospections of an Active Life, by John Bigelow. New York, 1909, 
p. 142. 



Defeat 463 

declared himself as distinctly as possible on the issues before 
the country. He might have made a poor President but he 
could hardly have been worse than Buchanan, who was 
elected in place of him. The war of four years later probably 
would have occurred on Fremont's election. ' On the other 
hand the politicians of the South would hardly then have 
been sufficiently coherent to have coerced all the people of the 
South as they did later; the States which came near remain- 
ing with the North possibly might have done so; Fremont's 
and Benton's plan of leaving slavery alone in all the States 
where it had been established and prohibiting it in all new 
territory might have been carried through, in which case 
there might have been no war at all. It must be remembered 
that there were few slaveholders (347,525) in the South as 
compared with the whole southern people, and it was the 
slaveholders' cry of States' rights which stirred the non- 
slaveholders to action. At any rate speculation on a 
favourable turn if Fremont had been elected, is just as 
sensible as taking the pessimistic side. There was much 
in his favour. 

But Fremont was defeated as it was likely he would be 
with all the southern politicians against him. He polled 
about 500,000 fewer votes than Buchanan, or 1,341,264, 
carrying all but five of the "free" States. These five went 
to Buchanan with fourteen slave States, while Fillmore got 
only one State and that one a slave State. 

I have no space to go fiu-ther into the Presidential cam- 
paign of this year, nor is it necessary in this volume to do so. 
Fremont took his defeat philosophically. He was even now 
only 43 years old and had other matters to look after. The 
following spring, 1857, ^^ went with his family to Paris, 
but after a brief stay he returned and proceeded to California 

'"Had he been elected, the war would probably have broken out then, 
instead of four years later." Rossiter Johnson, A History of the War of 
Secession, p. 23. Secession was in the air, but if the matter of slavery in the 
western territory could have been adjusted there would have been no war. 



464 Fremont and '49 

by Panama. He took up his residence, accompanied by his 
wife and children, on the Mariposa estate, in a portion called 
Bear Valley, which was also the name of a settlement there. 
They expected to remain at Mariposa about three months — 
for Mrs. Fremont it was to be a pleasant summer camp 
experience — and then the plan was to return to Paris to 
remain three years. 

A great shock now came to Mrs. Fremont in the death of 
her father, April 10, 1858. A peak was named Mount Bul- 
lion in his honour, he having had the political nickna.me of 
" Old Bullion." 

Before leaving California on January 21, 1852, Fremont 
had filed his claim to the Mariposa grant, according 
to American law, with the Commissioners appointed to 
adjudicate these claims, and in December of the same year 
his title was confirmed. But the next year, 1853, Caleb 
Cushing became Attorney-General under Pierce, and, 
through the District Court, he caused the decision of the 
Commission to be reversed on a number of grounds : no sur- 
veys ; no plan ; no occupation ; no confirmation by the proper 
public authority; no performance of any of the conditions 
precedent or subsequent to the grant. Fremont appealed to 
the United States Supreme Court which ruled in his favour 
holding that, "the purchase was perfectly consistent with 
the rights and duties of Colonel Fremont," and that 
"upon the whole it is the opinion of the court that the 
claim of the petitioner is valid, and ought to be confirmed, " 
and it was so confirmed.^ A patent was therefore issued 
to him in 1856. 

When it came to the survey, Fremont wanted the claim 
to extend along both banks of the river in a long strip, 
inasmuch as the grant was indefinite, and choice of bounds 
was very wide, but the surveyor held that it must be in 
compact form. Fremont, then, instead of taking a compact 

'Bigelow's Life, p. 385, and Howard's United States Supreme Court 
Reports, vol. vii., pp. 564-5. 



A Miners' War 465 

area of grazing land and mountain together, "swung his grant 
round and covered the valuable Pine Tree and Josephine 
mines, near the Merced River, besides a number of others 
which had been in undisputed possession of miners, who had 
long been familiar with Fremont, and had never heard 
the least intimation from him that he would in any event 
lay claim to their works. " ^ This is the report of the exam- 
iner. I have nothing from Fremont's side of the case and 
we cannot be sure that the statement is correct. 

To further complicate the situation was the fact that 
the Mexican law did not convey the gold, or other minerals, 
with any land grant. The American law had not yet decided 
this point. From this condition of things Fremont soon 
found himself in a state of serious warfare. The miners 
defied him and his claims, the officers of the law, and every- 
body who interfered with their operations. A law had been 
passed in California making it legal to "jump" a claim, 
under certain conditions, and under this Fremont for the time 
being lost some of the claims, especially the "Black Drift" 
where the guard was bribed to be absent long enough to 
permit the opposition to enter. The mines were converted 
into fortifications. The Pine Tree, in Fremont's possession, 
was besieged, A hundred men camped before its entrance to 
starve the miners out. Several men were killed. A notice 
was served on Mrs. Fremont, her husband being absent, 
at the mine, that the house would be burned in twenty- 
four hours, and if she did not leave it, the house would be 
burned over her head, and the Colonel would be killed. If 
she left, she would be escorted safely out of the valley. 

Mrs. Fremont was too much Uke her father to be easily 
defeated; she replied that the house and the land were 
theirs and they intended to remain; that if the house was 
burned they would camp on the land and if driven off they 
would sell to a corporation, which would make a more 
decided fight. Fremont, fearing drunkenness more than any 

' The Mariposa Estate. J. Ross Browne, 1868, p. 6. 
30 



466 Fremont and '49 

other factor, took steps to prevent all liquors from reaching 
the mines, and tried in every way to keep the disturbance on 
a reasoning basis. While he was busy with this, Mrs. 
Fremont succeeded in secretly dispatching at night, the only 
available person, a young English boy, as a messenger 
to Coulterville, whence he was to send someone on to the 
city of Stockton to secure aid from the State. The Coulter- 
ville "Home Guard" marched at once for the scene, and 
the State marshal soon arrived with 500 armed men. The 
Fremont residence appeared like a fort in war time. This 
ended the trouble. 

"But at last, in 1859, Fremont triumphed, and under 
his Mexican grant obtained land which the Mexican 
government did not intend to grant, and minerals which it 
systematically reserved," says Ross Browne, but we must 
remember this was no longer Mexican territory, and matters 
were not decided by Mexican law. Fremont was the bona fide 
owner by a decree of the United States Supreme Court. 
There is, therefore, nothing more to say about his title. The 
final government decision (1859) that minerals went with 
land was contrary to the Mexican law, too, but no one doubts 
the authority of the United States to make its own laws. 
The Mexican regime was overthrown when the Americans 
boxed up the records. 

Soon after the title was settled the yield of gold from 
the lode or quartz mines of the Mariposa reached a monthly 
average (in i860) of $39,500, and in 1863, about $100,000 
monthly. The total yield of gold in all California up to 
1856 was about $450,000,000, that is in about eight years, 
and since that time the yield and the values of everything 
in California have been enormous. Fremont had at least 
assisted prominently in adding this wealth to the coiuitry. 

But all Fremont's labours to develop and hold the Mari- 
posa estate, harassed as he had been by so many difficulties, 
and by his failure to achieve the Presidency, — candidates find 
"running" costly — produced financial embarrassment. He 



The Lodge 4^j7 

had also insufficient capital, and quartz mines in the beginning 
eat up capital. A judgment was obtained against him for a 
large amount, and on the 9th of September, 1859, the sheriff 
sold out the estate to the plaintiff, Francisco O'Campo. 
On the 7th of February, i860, O'Campo assigned to Mark 
Brumagim, of San Francisco, Fremont's chief creditor, and 
February 22, i860, Brumagim made an agreement to give 
Fremont a deed of seven-eighths of the property on the 
delivery of a certain amount of gold and other conditions. 
With the sheriff's sale, all the foreign companies having 
leaseholds apparently went up in the air." 

The nervous strain at the Mariposa had been too much 
for Mrs. Fremont and she and the family were taken down 
to San Francisco, which the Vigilance Committee by this time 
had rendered a tolerably decent place of residence. But as 
soon as she was well she insisted on returning to Mariposa. 
In 1859, Fremont had bought twelve acres two miles from 
the Golden Gate for $42,000. This was at Black Point, 
where Mrs. Fremont had found a home which delighted her, 
"a tiny cottage built on the edge of the bluff, on a small 
point projecting out into the Bay, just across the channel 
from Alcatraz Island."^ It was such a place as Fremont 
had often had in mind during the long, hard, journeys across 
the mountains, and here in i860 they made a comfortable 
home. Her father being gone, Mrs. Fremont had no desire 
to go back to Washington. Starr King was a frequent 
visitor and he named the cottage, the " Lodge by the Golden 
Gate"; and here also on Sundays, a shy, clever young fellow, 
a compositor on The Golden Era, and a contributor thereto, 
brought his manuscripts, and in him, Mrs. Fremont, with her 
fine artistic sense, discovered the flame of genius. Others 

' There was no question as to the richness of the estate. Professor Whit- 
ney said of it: "The quantity of material which can be mined may, without 
exaggeration, be termed inexhaustible." Professor Silliman said: "The 
estate is one of very great value, but also in a great degree undeveloped and 
demanding a large amount of active capital for its proper management." 

' Miss Fremont's Recollections. 



468 Fremont and '49 

did not see it then, but justifying her confidence, the name 
of Bret Harte, at length, went round the world. He was 
only about twenty-two when Mrs. Fremont first helped him 
in her generous way. Among other things she secured for 
him through Beale, Surveyor-general, a government posi- 
tion at $2500 a year, and later got him admitted to 
the circle of Atlantic authors with his "Legend of Monte 
Diablo." 

He became editor of The Calijornian and of The Overland 
Monthly. His Plain Language from Trtdhful James lifted 
him high, and people were captivated by Mliss, Two Saints 
of the Foothills, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, The Luck of Roar- 
ing Camp, and all the rest we now so well know, thoroughly 
saturated with the essence of early California. He was an- 
other Pathfinder in the West ; Fremont blazed the trail of Em- 
pire ; Bret Harte the trail of Literature. ' ' Mark Twain " was 
a close second on this trail with The Jumping Frog, etc. 

Fremont now went East again, 1861, leaving his family 
in the Lodge by the Golden Gate, and not long after Mrs. Fre- 
mont was runaway with, and injured, the horses dashing down 
''Russian Hill." Fremont was in London, April 13th, when 
the cannon of his own State, South Carolina, opened fire 
on Sumter and the Union. Like Benton, Fremont was 
for the Union once and forever, and though Benton's voice 
was stilled, Fremont's was heard with the patriotic ring it 
always had, for no matter what else may be said of him it 
must be admitted he was patriotic. His Mariposa compli- 
cations for the time being were ignored. He acted as agent, 
purchased arms for the government, and returned to accept 
a general's commission in the Union army. Meanwhile Mrs. 
Fremont having, after several weeks, recovered from the 
effects of the runaway, rented the Lodge, and came east via 
Panama, the vessel up the Atlantic having an exciting race 
with a rebel privateer, and winning. Major-General Fre- 
mont was assigned to the command of the Department of the 
West with headquarters at St. Louis. He chose the manorial 



Fremont Denounced 469 

Brant House. Mrs. Fremont with the children came to St. 
Louis also. They were regarded by many of their old ac- 
quaintances with bitter dislike, for St. Louis at first was 
largely in symj^athy with the South. General Fremont as- 
sumed command July 25, 1861. He declared martial law 
which F. P. Blair, Jr.,* his one-time friend, claimed was 
unjustifiable, "the offspring of timidity"; but Missouri was 
on the border line and St. Louis undoubtedly, for some 
months at least, was full of Southern sympathisers. General 
Fremont found everything in a confused and disorganised 
condition. One of his defenders, Brotherhood, declares: 

When Fremont took command of the Department of the 
West, it is well known everything was in a chaotic state. Floyd 
and the other thieves had managed to steal ail our arms, etc. . . . 
He bought arms, built barracks, organised his army, fortified 
St. Louis, issued contracts to build iron-clad gunboats, and 
designed a new style of mortar boats. ^ 

Like McClellan he was an organiser. He was preparing 
for real war, not for a ninety days' insurrection. 

Blair, on the other hand, charged that General Fremont 
spent money wastefully on fortifications which Blair declared 
were unnecessary, and Blair also charged insubordination, 
as Fremont did not stop building the forts when ordered to 
do so. Fremont tried to confine the war activities to the 
regular soldiers of both sides, and to eliminate unauthorised, 
semi-guerilla warfare, at that moment active in Missouri. 
To this end he entered into direct negotiation with Price, 
the Confederate general, who agreed with him, on these 
points: 

1. No arrests or interference with citizens for their 
opinions. 

2. Families broken up by the military to be re-united. 

I Speech of F. P. Blair, Jr., House of Rep., March 7, 1862. 
'General Fremont and the Injustice Done him by Politicians and Envious 
Military Men, by William Brotherhood. Phila., 1862. 



470 Fremont and '49 

3. The war to be confined to armies in the field. 
A joint proclamation to this effect was issued. Both gen- 
erals desired to cause as little damage as possible to the 
population, and to the property of non-combatants. But 
for those who took up arms against the Union, General 
Fremont prepared another proclamation which he issued 
August 30, 1 86 1, and which contained this important 
clause among many others: 

The property, real and personal, of all persons in the state of 
Missouri who shall take up arms against the United States, or 
who shall be directly proven to have taken an active part with 
their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the 
public use, and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared 
freemen.^ 

This was the first emancipation proclamation ever issued 
in the United States. It naturally created a sensation. The 
abolitionists were jubilant. The others defiant. Lincoln 
considered it premature; it did not fit his plans. He re- 
quested its modification; Fremont demurred. Lincoln 
then ordered the repeal and this order was considered, by 
the abolitionists, a pro-slavery act and much bewailed. In 
opposing the re-nomination of President Lincoln, Wendell 
Phillips said: 

If I turn to General Fremont I see a man whose first act was to 
use the freedom of the negro as his weapon; I see one whose 
thorough loyalty to democratic institutions, without regard to 
race, whose earnest and decisive character, whose clear-sighted 
statesmanship and rare military ability, justify my confidence 
that in his hands all will be done to save the State, that foresight, 
decision, and statesmanship can do. 

With disgust Garrison exclaimed: "He [Lincoln] has 
evidently not a drop of anti-slavery blood in his veins." 

' Official Records, War of the Rebellion, vol. iii., p. 467. Professor Royce, 
California, p. 177, calls this a "bombastic proclamation characterised by- 
effrontery and hypocrisy. " 




^^^^5^ g^^:?-z-i/^ 



From a painting in 1862 by Alonzo Chappcll after a recent photograph 



A Scapegoat 471 

But Lincoln considered his paramount duty the saving of 
the Union not the aboHtion of slavery. Later General Hunter 
and other generals brought up the same question by orders 
similar to Fremont's. 

General Fremont contended that " if the slaves were 
confiscated they must either be free, or the United States 
must enslave them." This was logical enough, but the 
great Captain, after numerous consultations with Fremont's 
superiors, decided to remove him on the charge of "incom- 
petency," and on October 24, 1861 this was done. It is 
interesting to note that General U. S. Grant was one of 
Fremont's subordinates, during the Hundred Days. 

No doubt General Fremont was open to criticism in this, 
and other matters, but it seems not to have been proven that 
he would not have "made good" if he had been retained 
in that field. " General Fremont was made the scapegoat. " ^ 
Even General Grant was later criticised unfairly and he 
said: "Because I would not divulge my ultimate plans to 
visitors, they pronounced me idle, incompetent, and unfit 
to command men in an emergency and clamoured for my 
removal."'' Charges of incompetency were the fad of the 
hour. In fact the Union forces were still not coherent 
throughout 1861 ; they had not learned the science of 
invasion. 

John G. Whittier, the "Quaker Poet," was inspired to 
write on Fremont: 

Thy error, Fremont, simply was to act 

A brave man's part, without the statesman's tact, 

And, taking counsel but of common sense, 

To strike at cause as well as consequence. 

Fremont had brought together on his staff a number of 
foreign officers of whom Major Charles Zagonyi was most 

' The Civil War from a Southern Standpoint, by W. R. Garrett and R. A. 
Halley, p. 113. 

'Personal Memoirs vol. i., p. 458. 



472 Fremont and '49 

prominent, a brave Hungarian, devoted to his general, and 
commander of the bodyguard. Zagonyi made a wonderful, 
a sort of Balaklava, charge on Springfield, Missouri, and was 
badly cut to pieces. F. P. Blair condemned Fremont 
unsparingly for ordering this charge, but the enemy had been 
reinforced after Zagonyi was sent out. Fremont writes: 
"He went right on, and, I am afraid, will be rash. I sent 
forward immediately eight hundred cavalry and a section 
of artillery." Zagonyi had begged permission to make this 
move. "At last he gave his permission," says Zagonyi, 
"if I take some additional help."^ 

Fremont's plan seems to have been to move gradually 
down on New Orleans occupying the country as he went, 
but of course this meant a well-equipped army and thorough 
defences behind him, as well as numerous gunboats on the 
Mississippi. He had barely begun his operations when he 
was removed. 

General Fremont has been condemned for trying at this 
time to be exclusive; unapproachable. The free-born 
American was then accustomed to walk at liberty into 
anybody's office or sanctorum, with no formality. When he 
ran up against a guard demanding his business with the 
General, he not only did not like it, but considered himself 
insulted. Few generals, editors, or business men to-day 
allow visitors freely to enter their offices and take up their 
time needlessly, but General Fremont never was forgiven for 
this innovation. He has even been drawn in a modern 
novel as a prig and a poseur.'' But he was trying to get 
some order out of chaos ; trying to get arms for his men ; and 
ammunition; and his officers were working hard. 

It is not my intention to go into the military career of 
General Fremont more than to round out this account of 
him, in a general way. His "Hundred Days in Missouri" 

' See The Story of the Guard; a Chronicle of the War, by Jessie Benton 
Fr6mont. Boston, 1863, pp. 123-124. 

^The Crisis, by Winston Churchill, p. 360. 



Carl Schurz 473 

were favourably written up for a magazine, and also were 
condemned severely, especially by the pro-slavery element. 
In all the charges and counter-charges it is difficult to 
follow the truth. 

The President gave him a command in Virginia, as it 
would not have been politic to drop him entirely, and in 
1862 he co-operated with Banks against Stonewall Jackson. 
"But in that sphere of action," says Carl Schurz, "he was 
no more fortunate." Schurz had been assigned to the 
division under his command. The difficulty of approach 
was continued. 

He was surrounded [says Schurz] by a body guard consisting 
mostly of Hungarians, brave soldiers who on occasion did excel- 
lent service, but who also contributed much to the somewhat 
unusual "style" which was kept up at Fremont's headquarters. 
As I afterwards observed Fremont himself had a taste for that 
sort of thing. When I was finally introduced by Colonel 
Zagonyi, one of the Hungarian aides-de-camp, the General re- 
ceived me kindly and at once promised to have a suitable com- 
mand arranged for me without delay. It was my first meeting 
with Fremont. I saw before me a man of middle stature, ele- 
gant build, muscular and elastic, dark hair and beard slightly 
streaked with gray, a broad forehead, a keen eye, fine regular 
features. It has been said that there was much of the charlatan 
in him, but his appearance at that time certainly betrayed 
nothing of the kind. There was an air of refinement in his 
bearing. His manners seemed perfectly natural, easy, and 
unaffected, without any attempt at posing. His conversation 
carried on in a low, gentle tone of voice, had a suggestion of 
reticence and reserve in it, but not enough to cause a suspicion 
of insincerity.^ 

In judging General Fremont's operations in the Virginia 
field it must not be overlooked that the armies were separate 
units controlled from Washington (by men who knew 
little about war), and often a general was compelled to 

' The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz. New York, 1907, vol. ii., p. 344. 



474 Fremont and '49 

move, or to halt, much against his inclination and judg- 
ment.^ Besides, the equipment was miserable. Many of 
the men "were marching barefooted through mud and over 
rocky ground," according to Schurz. And he says that 
where a bridge one day required repairing, an axe had to be 
borrowed from a nearby farmer! Schurz sent back letters 
to Lincoln about these things ; about the unfortunate reduc- 
tion of regiments to 400 men; lack of knapsacks; clothing; 
shoes ; poor horses ; those of the artillery barely able to drag 
the pieces ; and he ventured also, to suggest the necessity of 
more unity of command. It is plain that Fremont's position 
was not one to be envied ; no more than that of any other 
general in the field. 

The outcome of this situation was a concentration of all 
these commands, June 26, 1862, when Fremont's was placed 
under Major-General Pope as part of the newly created 
Army of Virginia. He requested to be relieved for the 
reason that Pope was his junior; the position being subor- 
dinate it "would reduce his rank and consideration in the 
service of his country." His request was complied with and 
here ended his military career as he was not again given 
a command. General Franz Sigel took his place. The 
other generals who were Pope's seniors were not as sensitive 
as Fremont — they had not been as prominent, and they 
pocketed their pride and remained on duty. 

During this time the Mariposa interests had been 
neglected but, on the loth of January, 1863, Fremont executed 
and delivered to Morris Ketchum and James W. Pryor, a 
mortgage upon six-eighths of the estate to seciu-e the sum of 
$1,500,000. The other two-eighths were owned by Abia 
Selover and Frederick Billings who executed mortages to 
the same parties on the 24th of June of the same year, 

^ " Mr. Stanton, however, preferred to control the chessboard, by the light 
of unaided wisdom, and while McDowell was unnecessarily strengthened, both 
Banks and Fremont were dangerously weakened." Lieut.-Col. G. F. R. 
Henderson, in his Stonewall Jackson. London, 1898, vol. i., p. 360. 



Mariposa Again 475 

under an agreement that the mortgage was made to pur- 
chase the Hens and encumbrances on the estate, and on the 
25th of June, 1863, the Mariposa Company, organised 
under the laws of New York, became owner of a deed con- 
veying the whole estate. Of course Mark Brumagim still 
really owned the Mariposa until Fremont, or his assigns, 
should redeem it, as previously agreed, by the payment of 
over $300,000 in gold. The price of gold, however, had 
risen enormously during the Rebellion, and in May, 1864, 
when the Mariposa Company was called on to meet the 
claim, $800,000 would have been required in currency. 
Brumagim then sold his lien, or title, to Cornelius K. Garri- 
son. The story becomes more complicated in legal techni- 
calities as the years advance, but the foregoing will give a 
sufficient impression of the unfortunate tangle, due to lack 
of capital, the see-sawing about title, and poor management. 
The Mariposa Company defaulted on the payment and was 
later re-organised. With the subsequent operations Fremont 
had little or no connection. To add further to his troubles 
his cottage and lands at Black Point, together with other ad- 
joining lands, were suddenly confiscated in 1863 by the United 
States for the erection of a fort. There was discovered a 
tendency on the part of France to recognise the Confederacy, 
and it was rumoured that she had designs on San Francisco 
in pursuance of this plan; hence the sudden need of forti- 
fication. Afterwards Fremont tried, for years, to secure 
re-imbursement for the property taken so unceremoniously 
from him, asking $50,000, a little more than he paid for it, 
but up to the time of his death, Congress ignored the demand 
and in fact, today stands convicted of having forcibly taken 
from a citzen real estate without compensation. On June 
4, 1864, he resigned from the army. He was again nominated 
for President to c )ose Lincoln's re-election, but the support 
was so small the movement was abandoned. In 1867 he 
was made president of the projected Memphis, El Paso, and 
Pacific Railway. 



476 Fremont and '49 

He went to live on the Hudson near Tarrytown. For 
some years the family enjoyed a happy life, the boys attend- 
ing preparatory school for West Point and Annapolis, 
respectively; Francis eventually going through the first 
and Charles becoming a naval officer through the latter. 
The family went again to Paris, and when Fremont was 
obliged to return his wife accompanied him, but Miss 
Fremont remained in Dresden, till the Franco-Prussian 
war drove her home. She took the last passenger train 
out of Dresden. 

Their next misfortune was the loss of the Hudson River 
home, "in a railroad panic," says Miss Fremont, her father 
then being concerned with the transcontinental railroad 
building. Owing to the failure of the railway scheme, many 
French investors lost their money and in 1873, Fremont was 
prosecuted by the French government and was sentenced 
on default to fine and imprisonment; but he was out of 
France. Once more they turned their steps towards the 
Golden Gate, and took up their residence on the Pacific 
Slope, now full of prosperous homes, rich ranches and fields, 
mines, mills, and everything pertaining to a civilised State. 

In 1878, Fremont was appointed governor of Arizona, 
and in September, of that year, with his family, he left San 
Francisco for his post. At Los Angeles, en route, he was sere- 
naded by citizens. From here they went by rail to Yuma, 
over the way he had formerly gone on horseback, and thence, 
there being no railway, in army ambulances to Prescott, 
which had a population of about 1800, and was an army 
post. Eventually the altitude, 5320 feet, was found to be 
too great for Mrs. Fremont and she was obliged to go to 
Tucson, 2376 feet. Two years later Fremont and his 
daughter also left Prescott for Tucson which was their 
home dining the final year of his governorship. 

Fremont and his wife went east, Fremont to buy arms for 
the territory with which to fight Apaches, and during their 
absence Miss Fremont had the experience of hearing the 



Losses by Fire 477 

explosion, like an earthquake, of an enormous powder 
magazine ; of seeing a cloudburst ; and of a severe illness with 
typhoid fever. 

About the same time Morrell's storage warehouse in 
New York, where the Fremont household goods and treas- 
ures were stored, burned to the ground. The plates, which 
had been prepared for the volume of Memoirs that was to 
have been published in Philadelphia, were stored under the 
sidewalk and were therefore not injured, but nothing else 
was saved. They next went to Washington where Fremont 
wrote his Memoirs, the first (and only) volume of which was 
published in 1887. Then they lived for a time at Point 
Pleasant, New Jersey, where Fremont had a severe attack of 
pneumonia and finally was ordered to Los Angeles to recup- 
erate, thus returning once more to the scenes of his earlier 
life. He arrived in Los Angeles, Christmas eve, 1887. 

His friends soon began a movement to have him restored 
to the army, as a major-general, and in the autumn of 1889 
he proceeded to New York in connection with this matter. 
He was in sore need of the income this would yield, and 
it is gratifying to note that Congress, in April, 1890, gave him 
this relief, " in view of the services to his country rendered 
by John C. Fremont, now of New York, as explorer, ad- 
ministrator, and soldier." While remaining to wind up his 
affairs so that he could permanently reside in California, he 
was seized with ptomaine poisoning, and after an illness of 
only five days, during which he was attended by Dr. William 
J. Morton, he died at 3 .-30 p.m., July 13, 1890, at the age of "jj. 
Only the doctor and his son, Lieutenant John C. Fremont, 
were with him at the end. As the moment of dissolution 
approached the General spoke of leaving for home. 

"Which home. General?" said the doctor. 

"California, of course," the Pathfinder whispered as he 
passed "Across the Range," into the country unexplored 
"the ultimate end of his route," as Mrs. Fremont said. 

It is a pleasure to record that Congress promptly voted 



478 Fremont and '49 

a pension of $2000 a year to the General's widow, hardly less 
of a general than he, and the women of Los Angeles presented 
her with a comfortable house, but her efforts to secure re- 
imbursement for the seizure of the Black Point home were 
no more successful than her husband's had been, although 
many others who had suffered similar loss had been paid. 

Fremont's remains were laid for a time in a Trinity 
vault, from which they were transferred to the receiving 
vault at Rockland Cemetery, Piermont, New York. The 
trustees of the cemetery on July 15th, two days after his 
death, voted a plot of ground, 20 x 35 feet, for the burial and 
a monument. The gift was accepted by Mrs. Fremont, and 
her son Charles selected the site, although the General 
himself had been many times to this place admiring the 
situation, from his home near Tarrytown immediately across 
the Hudson, in company with his friend William H. Whiton, 
one of the trustees. He had in fact chosen this spot as his 
last resting place, his final camp-ground; but had he died 
in California, it is probable he would have been buried there. 
Later the trustees voted to reserve a considerable area 
around this plot. 

A number of propositions for monuments and burial in 
different places were set forth; the legislature of Wyoming 
voted a small reservation close to Fremont's Peak; a citizen 
gave a square in the town near its base ; certain gentlemen of 
Kansas City talked of one at the mouth of the Kansas; and 
a California society, "Sons of the Golden West," tried to 
secure a site in Golden Gate Park, but failed. The "Associ- 
ated Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California," a New 
York organisation of which Rear-Admiral Meade, U. S. N., 
was president, endeavoured to erect a monument at Piermont. 
Mrs. Fremont, long before, in California, had discovered a 
young sculptor and painter, Gutzon Borglum, whose great 
talent she immediately recognised, and as he had known 
and painted the General, she desired the monument to be 
designed by him. He made a model which was viewed by 



Burial Rites 479 

the committee and photographs were taken for consideration. 
But the society, to Mrs. Fremont's disappointment, chose 
a design by another artist. For this and other reasons the 
monument matter dropped, and Mrs. Fremont requested 
that the final burial should be made without further delay ; 
as she said : "In the open air for suns and snows to fall upon 
his grave as he so often unflinchingly met them in his life of 
toilsome duty done." 

The final interment therefore took place the autumn 
of this request, November 22, 1894, a bright sunny day, when 
the Pioneers, with Admiral Meade, Major-General Miles, 
and many other distinguished men, were present at Piermont. 
Admiral Meade made the closing address, in which he re- 
marked : 

We are here to honour the memory of the man who did as 
much as any man in his generation to give us the Empire of the 
Western World. ... Of Fremont it can be said, every pulsation 
of his heart was for his country. If he had had his wish he would 
have died fighting for the colours he loved so well. His memory 
we revere. He was a pioneer in more senses than one. To him 
and his work is largely due the great party that brought about 
the freedom of millions of our countrymen in the United 
States. 



Fremont was either very much liked or disliked; the 
latter attitude towards him was often the result of jealousy. 
The men who had been with him for weeks in situations 
uncomfortable, dangerous, disheartening, where men's real 
natures show forth transparent as crystal — men like Carson, 
Fitzpatrick, and Godey about whom there was no taint of 
aff'ectation — esteemed him and admired him to the last. Cap- 
tain Cathcart, the splendid British officer who suffered with 
him on the disastrous fourth expedition, sent him from 
London a beautiful sword as a mark of his continued regard. 
Everywhere Fremont commanded respect; whether at the 



48o Fremont and '49 

camp-fire of Sioux or Ute, or in the drawing-room of Wash- 
ington, London, or Paris. ^ 

His noble wife declared privately to a friend: "All 
National, American, and grandly unselfish, it was a life 
to honour," and this approval from one who, for half a 
century, knew him best of all, must stand supreme. In 
December, 1902, she, herself, took the mystic trail Across 
the Range, and her ashes (she was cremated, in Los Angeles, 
by her request) traversed the mundane road the Pathfinder 
so long before had marked out, and rest beside him on the 
heights at Piermont.^ 

General Fremont was buried, not in the uniform of his 
rank, but by his request, in the ordinary black clothes of a 
civilian; and, by his request, the coffin was a cheap pine box 
covered with black cloth, and his funeral was without mili- 
tary display. Whatever may have been his mistakes — some 
due perhaps to pride, some to a natural tendency to insub- 
ordination accompanying a high, sensitive spirit; none to 
viciousness — General Fremont remains to-day, one of the 
foremost, one of the most remarkable, Americans of his 
century. The Nation will honour itself by honouring him. 
His name is inseparably interwoven with the opening, 
and the development, of more than half the present area of 
the United States, and especially with the acquisition of 
California, and with the days of '49. His writings, and his 
deeds, stand at the top in the record of that vast region. 

He profited little; his rewards were meagre; often 
they were only humiliation by powers with a sinister 
motive and through causes that should not have existed, and 
which were due to no fault of his, except perhaps to zeal and 
over-confidence. Sometimes he was made the " scapegoat, " 

^ The Ninth Medal Issued by the Circle of Friends of the Medallion in 
Manhattan, December of igij was of John Charles Fremont. It is accom- 
panied by prefatorial remarks by Charles de Kay, managing director, and by 
F. S. Dellenbaugh. 

=» John Charles, the second son, is also buried there. 






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THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
TO COMMEMORATE THE SERVICES AND MARK THE GRAVE OF 

JOHN CHARLES FREMONT 

MAJOR GENERAL U.S.A. 

■ oble wife deciareu privately to a frienci 
,,,.,'. A?i»-^-^^^'''''^^'^^ ''''■••' ^■^''''^^'''^-X^^^^^^^ it was ^ 

..!■ .'!.ii, -^iii^'-J^' APPOINTED 2D LIEUTENANT ''"■'''-^^' ^^ ^'*^ '^ " 
> hOnOUr,u!s.<W)POGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, JULY 2Qf833ihO, fOf half 

..,. I^^^BRE VETTED CAPTAIN U.S.A., JULY 31, 1844, .;,ryr£jjie II 

'F,dR GALLANT AND HIGHLY MERITORIOUS SERVICES IN"Tw5_ 
EXPEDITIONS TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, THE FIRST OF WHlck AcTOSi 
, ; ,;p;?..MINATED OCT. 1 7, 1 842, THE SECOND BEYOND THOSE MOUNTA^^Sf^glgc; 

oy xier reque,j,ggjjg^p^gj^ -^^^g popularly known'^a^ ^^® Fatniinaei 
so long before had ^e PATHPINDERJ^^^ beside him on the 

^^^S^'^ '"^ENGAGED IN THIRD EXPEDITION AND SURVEY WEST OF 

Gener. ' the Mississippi river to july 23, 1846. ■jniform of his 

rank |-)^ appointed LIEUT.-COLONEL U.S. mounted rifles, ,-,^|.|^^^^ ,^£ 
MAY.^V. 1846; major commanding CALIFORNIA BATTALION OF VbLUNTEJSRS 

CI vinarj^^gij^L: PROVISIONAL battalion organized by himself, >ine box 
covered with ! ^ July 23, to oct. 27, 1846. , ,^ Q^t mill 

^ ^* 1 appointed SEPTEMBER 2, 1 846, " + 1 

lary display, military commandant of california^^^^^^^s some 

and JANUARY 13, 1847, concluded ARTICLES OF CAPITULATION WHICH 

terminated THE WAR WITH MEXICO IN CALIFORNIA AND LEFT THAT 

COUNTRY PERMANENTLY IN THE POSSESSION OF THE UNITED STATEsj' 

•''■:''"■■'■ ' ■ APPOINTED CIVIL GOVERNOR '-''"" ' '' * ?'"' 

OF THE TERRITORY OF CALIFORNIA, JANUARY 16, 1847, 

WHICH HE RELINQUISHED APRIL 1 9, 1 847, 

AND MARCH 1 5, 1 848, RESIGNED FROM THE ARMY. 

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM CALIFORNIA 

SEPT. 10, 1850, TO MARCH 4, 1 85 1. ,,,.,.,,j,„4- ,,„pp ^.f 

NOMINATED JUNE 19, 1856, pi c-^eHt arca Ot 

■ lie United for president of the united states.: acquisition of 
Calif omia^PS9A^T^,^ .^AjoR general u.s.a., may 1.4, i86f^ngs, and his 

■ AND JULY 26, 1 861, 

deed,^g^"-^^^"ic2)^M']ffb' of the western MILITARV DEPAii™i'#ii^*'^^^- 

He l',, .RELINQUISHED COMMAND . NOVEMBER 2, I861. MOlC' OftCn 
. rASSUMED COMMAND OF THE MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT, M,ARCH 29, iSfei^. 

W ^ere only relieved june 27, 1862, -'/-'^i ^' ^ffister 
motive aadobN^juKE 4, 1864, resigned from THE'A&stvexisted, and 
which wei^Y^^^^"^ ^^ Arizona territory 1878 to 188^^, ^^ ^eial and 

BY ACT OF congress, APRIL I9, IS90, 

over " I^f view of the services to his country rendered b'^S^^''* 
JOHN c. Fremont, now of new york, 

AS EXPLORER, ADMINISTRATOR, AND SOLDIER," 

^TheNintJ: was appointed major general u.s.a., edalUon in 

Mmiliattan, Decemocr ^^d retired, April 28, 1890.'"''^™*^'^*- ^^' ^^ accom 
panied-by prefafcnritiiED in new vork, july 13, 1896; ■-i"i-' director, and b-^ 
F. S. Dellenbau 

. Toi.r-. rnjgggjg BENTON FREMONT— HIS WIPE 

BORN, MAY 31, 1824. DIED, DECEMBER 27, I902. 




Monument to General Fremont 

Picrmoiit, New V'^rk, Rockland Ccniuicry 
Erected iqo6 by the State of New York 
Photograph by F. S. Dellenbaugh, 1913 



Honoured by New York 481 

and the target, at one and the same moment, especially dur- 
ing the first rage of sectionalism born of slavery and the Civil 
War. More even than Lincoln, he received that first terrible 
onslaught of hatred and malice produced by the gathering 
storm — the whirlwind forerunning the tempest and warning 
the mariner to furl his sails. Staunchly he stood his ground 
never flinching in his call to halt slavery within its old 
bounds, or exterminate it altogether. 

You who have followed his picturesque and interesting 
career, as recorded inadequately in these pages, ponder on it 
and tell us where it can be surpassed. Be not prejudiced by 
the false echoes of that desperate political encounter of 
1856, nor yet by the recriminations incident to trying to 
organise an invading army out of raw materials with not even 
ordinary equipment at hand. Then say whether this 
extraordinary explorer, pathfinder, scientist, soldier, has re- 
ceived his full measure of honour. I think not. 

In 1906, the State of New York, marked his sojourn with- 
in its bounds by erecting to his memory a monument at his 
grave at Piermont, a few feet back from the brink of the bluff, 
and five hundred feet above the great river, looking up and 
down the shining water of Tappan Zee ; across to the tomb of 
Washington Irving; down into the mountains where, two 
hundred and thirty-seven years before Fremont named the 
Golden Gate to the Orient, to Far Cathay, Henry Hudson 
sailed up from the sea through the Entrance Gate to the 
Occident, and pointed the way. Take no small view of 
Fremont. He sizes up far beyond the average ; and through 
all he was a gentleman. 
31 




LITERATURE ON THE SUBJECTS MENTIONED IN THIS 

VOLUME 

Abert, J. W., Journal of, during an Expedition on the Upper Arkansas, 1845, 
etc. Washington, 29th Congress, ist Sess., Senate Doc. 438. 

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Narrative of, translated by Buckingham 
Smith. 

Article on, by Brownie Ponton and Bates H. McFarland, in Quarterly 

of Texas Historical Society, 1898. 

Bandelier, a. p., on, in Contributions to the History of the South-western 

Portion of the United States. Cambridge, Mass., 1890. 

Anonymous, "Who is Col. J. C. Fremont?" by one who has long Known him 
Socially, Financially, and Politically. Daily News, New York (1856). 

Argonaut, San Francisco, Diary of John A. Sutter, Jan. 26-Feb. 2-9-16, 1878. 

A storia, or A necdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains, by Wash- 
ington Irving. 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1836. Many reprints since, 

Atlantic Monthly, Royce and Fremont. Vol. Ixvi., p. 556; vol. Ixix., p. 922. 



Bancroft (George) to Sloat, 30th Cong., ist Sess., Ex. Doc. 60, p. 231. 

Bancroft, H. H., History of the North-west Coast. San Francisco. 

History of Oregon. San Francisco. 

History of California. San Francisco. 

History of Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona, etc. 

Bandelier, Adolph F. Final Report of Investigations among the Indians 
of the South-western United States. Papers of the Archceological In- 
stitute of America. American Series iv. Cambridge, Mass., 1892. 

"Barometer, New Method of Measuring Heights with a," by G. K. Gilbert, 
p. 405, et seq., Report of Secretary of the Interior, vol. iii. Washington, 
1882. 

Barrett, S. M. Geronimo's Story of his Life. New York, 1906. 

Barrows, H. D. Address before the Historical Society of Southern California, 
reprinted in New York Evening Post, June 22, 191 1. 

Bartlett, J. R. Personal Narrative, 2 vols. New York, 1854. 

Beale, Edward Fitzgerald. Wagon Road — Fort Smith to Colorado River. 
H. R., 36th Cong., 1st Sess., Ex. Doc. No. 42. 

Wagon Road from Fort Defiance to the Colorado River. H. R., 35th Cong., 

1st Sess., Ex. Doc. No. 124. 

Life of, by Stephen Bonsal. New York, 1912. See also Heap, G. H. 

Be.\le and Heap, see G. H. Heap. 

483 



484 Fremont and '49 

" Bear Flag Party, The," by an Eye- Witness, in The Calif ornian, Aug. 22, 
1846. Reprinted in Out West, vol. xxiii.. No. 2, p. 152 et seq. 

"Bear Flag Revolt," H. H. Bancroft, History of California, vol. v., 1846- 
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494 Fremont and '49 

Kelsey, Rayner Wickersham. " The United States Consulate in Cali- 
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49^ Fremont and '49 

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33 



498 Fremont and '49 

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INDEX 



Abert, Colonel, only nominally re- 
sponsible for second expedition, iii 

Abcrt, Lake, character of, and origin 
of name, 192 

Abert, Lieutenant, starts with third 
expedition, 289; detached at Bent's 
Fort to explore to southward, 289; 
McDowell goes with, 289 

Abolitionists bewail repeal of Fre- 
mont's proclamation, 470 

Acorns prepared and eaten by Cali- 
fornia Indians, 300 

"Across the Range," 403 

Adams River, name given to Virgin 
River by Jedediah Smith, 256; pos- 
sibility that his Adams River was 
the Muddy, 256 

Adobe, material of Bent's Fort, 279 

Adventure the result of incompetence, 
279 

Advertising nuisance, the, 124 

Africa, steamship on which Fremont 
first crossed the Atlantic, 430 

Agriculture of native tribes, 27 

Agua de Hernandez (Archilette), 252 

Agua de Tomaso, 249 

Aguas Calientes or Warner's, 410 

Ahk, a grass-seed food, 141 

"Alamo, Remember the," 340 

Albuquerque, first relief party of 
fourth expedition tries to go there, 
400; Fremont reaches, 406 

Alcatraz Island, Fremont's home 
across channel from, 467 

Alcohol, beverages of, not approved, 
25; used in trade with Indians, 48, 
126-127 

Alforgas, for packing, 174 

Almonte, Mexican Minister at Wash- 
ington, fear of settlers in California, 
206 

Alpenglow, 184 

Alta, or Upper, California, 39; area so 
called, 179 



Altitudes calculated by boiling point, 
169 

Alvarado, Juan B., governor of Alta 
California, 43, 206, 207; ex-gover- 
nor joins Castro against Michel- 
torena, 304; friendship for Ameri- 
cans, 307; grant of land from 
Michel torena, 415 

Amargosa, 251 

American consul at Monterey, 303 

American Desert, the Great, 21 

American Falls of Snake River, 160 

American Fur Company, buys Fort 
John (Fort Laramie), 74; Frc^mont 
arrives at Bellevuc fort of, loi 

American Government denies all 
titles to land in California, 426 

American Minister to Mexico protests 
against prohibition of Americans, 
206 

American River, north branch, second 
expedition arrives at, 228 

Americanos, the, no joy to the Cali- 
fornians, 428 

Americans, prohibited from entering 
California, 206; feeling against, in 
California, 305; as foreigners, dis- 
qualified from holding land in Cali- 
fornia, 309; consider organising to 
resist Mexican Government, 309; 
ready to join Fremont, 311; action 
by, changes quarrels of Califor- 
nians, 312; captured by Mexicans, 
314; advance to Rio Grande, 314; 
prohibition of, to be enforced, 326; 
subject to expulsion, 326; imagine 
an armed party to attack Fremont, 
327; flag to be raised by navy, 328; 
no massacre of, 336; expelled from 
Matamoras, 347; basis of California 
proclamation against, 348; raise flag 
at Monterey, at San Francisco, at 
Sonoma, and at Sutter's Fort, 349, 
351; defeated at San Pedro and at 
Chino Ranch, 361; battle of San 
Pascual, 362; attack defences of 



503 



504 



Index 



Americans — Continued 

Los Angeles, 371; enter the town, 

371 

Amerindian tribes, 27; dog and horse 
packing, 280 

Amerinds, 27 

Amole or soap plant, 237 

Anderson Lake, 193 

Andrews, member of fourth expedi- 
tion, 398; death of, 399 

Angeles, Rio de los, now Muddy- 
River, 255 

Animals of the Far West, 26 

Annapolis, Fremont's son goes there, 
476 

Antelope Island of Great Salt Lake, 
Fremont rides out to it and names 
it, 292; Old Ute claims it, 292 

Antelope Valley, 211; Bidwell's 
camp in, 212, 219; Fremont's camp 
in, latitude of, 219 

Antelope, steamer, up Missouri, 13 

Apaches, started in warfare, 262; 
scourge of the South-West, 408; 
Fremont buys arms for Arizona to 
use against, 476 

Applegate, goes down Columbia in 
boats, 171; tries to run the Dalles, 
172; children and helper drowned, 

173 

Aquarius Plateau, 267 

Arapaho war party, 62 

Arapeen, brother of Wakar (Wakara), 
met, 447 

Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 431 

Arce, Lieutenant, intercepted and 
horses captured, 331 

Arc^, Madame, cares for Mrs. Fre- 
mont, 411, 419 

Archambeau, Auguste, joins Fre- 
mont's second expedition, 272; 
news of water by, 294; lost, 
316 

Archilette, the spring called, 249-251 ; 
named Agua de Hernandez by 
Fremont, 251 

Archuleta, Colonel, 358; foments 
outbreak, 359 

Arctic tundra, flowers on the, 246 

Arguello, Captain of the Port, 356 

Aridity, 25 

Arizona, Fremont appointed gover- 
nor of, 476 

Arkansas River, source, 2 1 ; second 
expedition leaves it, 280 

Armijo, slaughters Texans, 43; gov- 
ernor of New Mexico, 358; under- 
stands conquest is to halt at east 



bank of Rio Grande, 358; flight of, 
358 

Army, American, to advance into 
Mexican territory, 295; no Ameri- 
can, on Pacific Coast, 328; of Vir- 
ginia, 474 

Arrowheads, method of making stone, 
187 

Arrows, poisoned, 321; spread fan- 
like on ground for use, 323 

Ashley, General Wm. H., mentioned, 
41 ; takes wheeled cannon through 
South Pass, 41, 104, 107; sends 
Fitzpatrick's accusation to General 
Clark, 126; descends Green River, 

134 

Ashley Lake (Utah Lake), 104 

Ashley's Fork of Green River, 272; 
now Ashley Creek, 272 

Associated Pioneers of the Territo- 
rial Days of California propose 
monument for Fremont, 478 

Astor, John Jacob, organises Pacific 
Fur Co., 35 

Astoria, Fort, in Oregon, completed, 
35; taken by British, 1812, 36; 
returned, 36; Robert Stuart comes 
East from, 83 

Astronomical observations, Fremont 
does not neglect, 446; assisted by 
Carvalho, 446 

Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Rail- 
way at Tehachapi Pass, 246 

Atole prepared for dying men of 
fourth expedition, 399 

Atwood, Colorado, 117 

Aubrey, Francis Xavier, noted fron- 
tiersman, 405 ; makes famous rides, 
405; goes with Fremont as far as 
Socorro, 406; lends Fr6mont 
money, 406; killed by Weightman, 
406; steamer named after, 433 

Avalanches of Sierra Nevada, 205 

Awapa Plateau, 267 

Ayot, Alexis, accidentally shot in the 
leg, 280 



B 



Babbitt, Territorial Secretary, 449; 

Fremont sends letters by, 449; 

publishes in California account of 

expedition, 450 
Bac, San Xavier del, 408 
Bacon, member of fourth expedition, 

398 
Badeau, Frangois, shoots himself 

accidentally, 268 



Index 



505 



Baggage transported in carts, 53 

Bakcrsfield, 242 

Baltimore Sun cited, 425 

Bancroft, George, Secretary of the 
Navy, 284; confers frequently 
with Benton, 286; approves third 
Fremont expedition, 287; state- 
ment of, concerning Gillespie's 
mission, 319; Secretary of the Navy, 
sends messages to Sloat, 328; sole 
director of California affairs, 341, 
footnote; annoyed at Sloat's delay, 
353; letter of, to Sloat, 353; Stock- 
ton prepares report for, 357 

Bancroft, H. H., quoted, 374-376 

Bandini, citizen of San Diego, 356 

Bandoleros, name Castro applied to 
Fremont and his party, 311 

Bangs, Mount, named by Professor 
Thompson, 262 

Banks, General, operates against 
Stonewall Jackson, 473 

Bannock, Range, 157; River, 157 

Bardstown, Kentucky, professor pro- 
poses Pacific railway, 387 

Barenda Creek, 407 

Barlow, S. K., proposes railway to the 
Pacific, 387 

Barometer, broken, 79; Fr(5mont re- 
pairs, 85 ; description of, 85 ; broken, 
169 

Barometrical observations compared, 
52; necessity of base station, 52 

Barrett, S. M., edited life of Ge- 
ronimo, 408 

Bartleson-Bidwell, 201, footnote, 208; 
abandon waggons, 209; site of 
camp in Antelope Valley, 218, 219, 

293 
Base stations, four, to be established, 

289; first at Pueblo, 289; second at 

Salt Lake, 291 
Basil's Creek, 297 
"Basin, Rim of the," referred to. 

Battalion, California, expenses in- 
curred for, by Fremont repudiated 
by Congress, 431; see California 
Battalion 

Battle of Utcs and Arapahos, 278 

Bayou Salade (South Park), 22, 121, 
277 

Beadle, of fourth expedition, 398; 
Godey reaches him, 401 

Beale, Edward Fitzgerald, midshijj- 
man, 361; sent with Gillespie, 362; 
messenger to Stockton with Kit 
Carson, 363, 412; arrives in Cali- 



fornia with government despatches, 
416; message for Fremont, 416 

Beale, with Heap, ahead of Fr(imont, 
434 

Bear Flag made by Todd, 333 

Bear Flag, party, 332, 333; Republic, 
333; soldiers attack Mexicans, 334; 
men join Fremont, 338; revolt 
started by Merritt, Idc, and others, 
339; proclamation, 339; army, 
three companies formed, 339; re- 
volt a natural outcome of condi- 
tions, 341; presence of Frdmont a 
coincidence, 341; put Americans 
in possession, 343; outgrowth of 
conditions, 346 

Bear Flag republic, talk of, 418 

Bear Flag, star transferred to Union, 
422 

Bear River, Idaho, dog from there 
eaten, 222 

Bear River, leading from Donner 
Pass to Sacramento Valley, 299 

Bear Valley, settlement on Mariposa 
estate, 464; State marshal arrives 
at, 466 

Beaver Creek, 278 

Beaver Creek branch of Sycan River, 
190 

Beaver cuttings to indicate waters of 
Pacific, 201 

Beaverdam Creek, Frdmont arrives 
at, 261 

Beaverdam Mountains, north-eastern 
limit of Clistoyiicca arborescens, 245 ; 
great change at, in countr>% 263 

Beckwith, scout, see Beekwourth 

Bcckwith, Lieut. E. G., report on 
Gunnison expedition, 437, footnote 

Beekwourth, Jim, meets Fremont, 
63; his wife Louise Sandeville, 64; 
remarks on Fremont, 64; Chitten- 
den's estimate of, 118; first per- 
manent settler at Pueblo, 118; 
Connelley's remark on, 118; goes 
to California, 122 

Bedonkohe Apaches, 408 

Beechey, Captain, Fremont corrects 
coast line by means of his and 
Beechey's observations, 329 

Beer Springs, 143 

Bell, Major Horace, quoted, 65 

Belligny, Captain, accompanies Ni- 
collet, 12 

Benicia, Mexican archives nailed up 
in boxes at, 427 

Bent brothers, 62 

Bent, George, 279 



506 



Index 



Bent's Fort, second Fremont expedi- 
tion to return by way of, 177; 
second expedition there on return, 
279; Carson and Walker remain 
there, 279; description of, 279; new 
fort, 436; old fort destroyed, 436 

Benton home in St. Louis a rendez- 
vous for Western men, 107 

Benton, Jessie, 16; first meeting with 
Fremont, 17, 389 

Benton, Mrs., injured in upset of 
coach, 104; nephew with third 
expedition as far as Bent's Fort, 
289; nephew sent with Lieutenant 
Abert, 289 

Benton, Randolph, 16; goes with 
Fremont, 53; left at Fort Laramie, 
73; death of, 431 

Benton, Thomas H., 4; duel with 
Jackson, 5; meets Fremont, 16; 
" manifest destiny" idea, 18; makes 
Fremont leader, 18; opposed to 
annexation of Texas, 19; claims for 
Fremont honour of eliminating the 
Buenaventura River myth, 22; 
maintains 49th parallel legal 
boundary to Pacific, 38; receives 
report on Santa Fe trade, 41 ; in- 
terested in the several Fremont 
expeditions, 45; the prime insti- 
gator, 45; favours homestead law, 
46; says government wished to 
check emigration to Oregon, 47; 
estimate of, 49; remarks on how- 
itzer incident, 109; ascribes coun- 
termanding order to jealousy, 109; 
wisdom of, lii; inspired second 
expedition, 1 1 1 ; intended to anchor 
California, 112; prevents dissolu- 
tion by government of American 
Fur Company, 126; determined to 
settle Oregon, 137; remarks on 
emigration and government dis- 
couragement of, 160; drops court- 
martial idea, 283; chairman of the 
Senate Military Committee, 286; 
Bancroft, Buchanan, Dix come to 
confer with him, 286; Buchanan 
brings Spanish documents to be 
read, 286; meetings held in library 
of, 286; daughters of, translate, 286; 
Fremont sends resignation to, 335 ; 
remarks on Gillespie's message, 
336; enumerates operations fatal 
to American interests, 336; error 
of, 336 ; states that Magoffin effected 
peaceful entrance into Santa Fe, 
354; not friendly to Kearny, 354; 



denunciation of Kearny, 363, as- 
sists in defence of Fremont, 380; 
charges West Point jealousy, 382; 
wanted railway to California, 3S7; 
expected to go to California, 387; 
attack on, by Senator Foote, 425; 
has power of attorney to sell 
Mariposa, 427; proposes to sell to 
Thomas Denny Sargent, 427; judg- 
ment of as to snow no obstacle 
for railway, 450; not re-elected, 
45 1 ; rated with Webster and Clay, 
45 1 ; due to him that the Far West 
was explored and understood, 451; 
Fremont on the ground because of 
him, 451; opposed forcible annexa- 
tion of California, 45 1 ; refuses to 
aid Fremont, 457; said to have 
objected to the way Fremont 
parted his hair, 460, footnote; plan 
of, concerning slavery, 463; death 
of, 464; called Old Bullion, 464 

Bernier left to defend camp, 86 

Bernier's encampment, 85 

Berthoud, E. L., remarks on Bridger, 
23; quoted, 135; laid out road from 
Denver to Salt Lake, 291 

Bidwell, John, 201; camp in Ante- 
lope Valley, 212; Indians tell of, 
218; see footnote, 219; camp-site 
confirms Fremont's position, 220; 
states troops were sent to break 
up Sutter's Fort, 233, footnote; 
293; states Fremont followed emi- 
grant road over Sierras, 300; de- 
scribes Fremont's arrival at Sutter's 
Fort on his third expedition, 301; 
in charge of Sutter's Fort, 302; 
says Fr6mont thought him unwill- 
ing to aid, 302 ; error of, as to Fre- 
mont's first visit to Monterey, 303, 
footnote ; declares Micheltorena 
fair-minded, 305; meets Michel- 
torena, 305; meets Castro and 
Alvarado, 306; concludes to sup- 
port Micheltorena, 306; planned to 
develop the gold discovery of 
Gutierrez, 306; relates clash be- 
tween Sutter and Fremont, 337; 
goes to Sonoma to join Fremont, 
339; says they felt secure before 
the uprising, 339; writes proclama- 
tion, 339; final approval of revolt, 

343 
Big Blue, Fremont crosses, 57 
Big Timbers, 391 
Big Vermilion, the, Fremont crosses, 

57 



Index 



507 



Bigelow, John, remarks on Frdmonl's 
climbing Fremont Peak, 87; says 
Frdmont was treated with disre- 
spect on way home, 378; says pro- 
motion awakened jealousy, 379; 
cited 423; wrote life of Fremont 
for N. Y. Evening Post, 461; called 
on Frdmont, 461; opinion of Fre- 
mont, 462; mistaken on some 
points, 462; tribute to Mrs. Fre- 
mont, 462 

Bi^'Ier Lake, 226 

Bijou, Creek, 117; Fork, 121 

Billings, Frederick, owner of share 
of Mariposa, 474 

Birch River, 167 

Bird Spring Canyon, 455 

Bison Amen'canus, 26; range of, 145, 
146; see Buffalo 

Bissonette, interpreter at Fort Platte, 
72; writes letter for Sioux chiefs, 
75; goes as guide, 76; meets the 
enemy, 77; urges Fremont to turn 
back, 80 

Black Drift mine, Fremont loses it, 

465 
Black Hills or Laramie Mountains, 

128 
Black Point, Fremont buys home 

there, 467; confiscated for U. S. 

fort, 475; Congress refuses to pay 

for it, 475, 478 
Black Rock Desert, 197 
Blair, F. P., Jr., condemns Fremont, 

469, 472 
Blanca Peak, height of, 394 
Blizzards, 395 
Blood atonement of Moapa Indians, 

262 
Blue Mountains, western limit of 

bufTalo range, 162; beauty of, 169; 

altitude, 169 
Blue River, 276 
Boat, india rubber, used, 55; launched 

on Sweetwater River, 91 ; on the 

Platte, 92; construction of, and use 

on Malade River and Bear River, 

147, 148; on Weber River and 

Great Salt Lake, 151, 152 
Bodeau in charge of Fort Laramie, 

Bodega, Russian California settle- 
ment, 230 

Boiling Springs, 297 

Bois de vache, 61 

Bomar, photographist of fifth expedi- 
tion, left behind, 433; photographic 
contest with Carvalho, 433 



Bonapland, Lake, 225 

Bonneville, Ca[)tain B. L. E., 22; 
name applied to Salt Lake, 24; 
given to ancient sea, 24; maj) A, 
24; first to take waggons through 
South Pass, 41 ; visits vSalt Lake, 42 ; 
plans exploration of, 42; trajjs in 
Oregon country, 42; builds fort, 85; 
map B, 89; climbs peak of Wind 
River Range, 87-88; goes through 
South Pass, 89; circumtours Wind 
River Range, 90; reference, in; 
sends Joseph Walker to explore 
Salt Lake, 136; at Soda Springs, 
Bear River, 143; does not name 
Great Basin, 168; consulted by 
Wilkes, 386, footnote 

Bonsai, Stephen, cited on Beale, 412 

Boone, Daniel, Sutter's troubles 
likened to those of, 452 

Borglum, Gutzon, sculptor and 
painter, 478; talent recognised by 
Mrs. Frdmont, 478; makes model 
for monument, 478 

Botanical specimens lost, 229 

Boundary, between Oregon and 
U. S., 37; between Spain and U. S., 
37; Texas and Mexico, 37; general 
situation, 1841, 39; western, of 
Louisiana, 40 

Boundary Commission, Mexican, 
Fremont appointed on it, 416 

Boundary Commission, Air. Gray 
of the, 411 

Bow-and-arrow, Kit Carson's opin- 
ion of, 186; efficiency of, 321 

Bowie, Dr., takes care of Airs. Frd- 
mont, 419 

Box Elder Creek, 128 

Brady's Island, origin of name, 59 

Brandy doled out, 215 

Brant, Colonel, son of, with Fremont, 

53 
Brant, Henry, left at Fort Laramie, 

Brant House, St. Louis, Fremont's 
military headquarters, 469 

Brant's Fork of the Sacramento, 315 

Breckenridge nominated for Vice- 
President, 456 

Breckenridge Pass, 277 

Bridgeport Valley, 215 

Bridger, Jim.'knowk^dgc of Colorado 
River canyons, 23; mentioned, 41 ; 
discovers Great Sialt Lake, 42, 135; 
meets Fremont's second expedition, 
68; cstalilishcs fort, 131; helps en- 
gineers of Union Pacific, 132; usual 



508 



Index 



Bridger, Jim — Cotitinued 

version of discovery of Great Salt 
Lake, 135, footnote; thought Salt 
Lake an arm of the sea, 135 

British, tolerance towards Americans, 
44; opposition, 48 

British North-West Co. tries to pre- 
vent operations of Pacific Pur Co., 

35 

Broderick, David C, book on, by 
Jeremiah Lynch, cited, 429 

Brooks, Preston, declares issue Union 
or dis-Union, 458 

Brotherhood, William, defends Fre- 
mont, 469 

Brown, J. C., surveys route to Santa 
Fe, 41 

Brown Fort, now Brownsville, Wool's 
fortification, 314 

Brown's Hole, 272; now Brown's 
Park, 273; Fort Davy Crockett in, 
273; lower end of most eastern 
point of Green-Colorado River, 273 

Browne, J. Ross, cited, 416, footnote; 
quoted, 465, 466 

Brumagim, Mark, O'Campo assigns 
to, 467; agreement with Fremont, 
467; still owner of Mariposa, 475 

Bruno Mountains, 161 

Bryant, Edwin, with Fremont, 365; 
asks Sutter to recruit Indians, 365; 
arrives at San Juan Bautista, 366; 
tells how news of capture of Los 
Angeles reached Fremont before 
treaty of Couenga, 372 

Buchanan, declares United States 
does not want more territory, 285; 
empty phrases of, which Fremont is 
not to be judged by, 285 ; Secretary 
of State, 285; instructions to consul 
at Monterey, 285 ; confers frequently 
with Benton, 286; takes confiden- 
tial Spanish letters to Benton to 
read, 286; orders to Larkin, 347; 
drafts by Fremont on, 431; unable 
to pay, 43 1 ; testimony taken for 
British Court in Philadelphia, 431; 
(and Breckenridge) nominated by 
Democrats for President (and Vice- 
President), 456; coincides with Fill- 
more in dis-Union, 458; five free 
States go to, 463; Fremont could 
have been no worse President, 463 

Buckeye, Creek, 216; Pass, 216 

Buenaventura Rio, Green River so 
called by Escalante, 33 

Buenaventura River, imaginary, 2 1 ; 
eliminated by Bonneville's men 



and Jedediah Smith, 22; Benton 
claims honour for Fremont, 22; 
mentioned, iii; eliminated from 
maps of Gallatin, Bonneville, and 
Wilkes, 177; Fremont to search 
for, 177; McLoughlin's belief in 
it, 177; Fremont to go there, 179; 
myth exploded, 180; Fremont's 
belief in it, 180; myth ever youth- 
ful, 180; course of, 188; reference, 
196, 202; Carson and Fitzpa trick 
believe in, 202 ; reference, 213 ; again 
a vision for Fremont, 226; the 
myth dead, 270; search for, had a 
purpose, 286 
Buena Vista Lake, 241 
Buffalo, 26; Fremont's first sight of, 
14; arrival among, 59; description 
of herd, 59; robes or skins, large 
number required by Indians and 
traded in, 145; range of, 145; killed 
on Green River in 1776, 146; range 
of, 145-146; killed on Swamp 
Creek branch of Snake River, 162; 
range to Blue Mountains, 162; to 
Sierra Nevada, 162; abundant, 290; 
large numbers crossed Cochetope 
Pass, 438 
Buffalo chips, 61 
Buffalo fish, 290; called humpbacks, 

291 
Buffalo Gate or Cochetope, 438 
Buford, Colonel, Fremont breakfasts 

with him at Socorro, 407 
Bull-boat, Fremont builds and 

launches one, 97 
Bullfrog, town of, 210 
Bunch grass, excellence of, 157 
Burden carriers, Amerindian, 280 
Burnt River, second expedition on, 

168 
Buttes of the Sacramento, Fremont 
camps there, 329; becomes rendez- 
vous of Americans, 329 



Cabeza de Vaca, from Texas to the 

Pacific, 30 
Cabinet, United States, intends to 

acquire California, 328 
Cache a la Poudre, 66 
Caching goods of fifth expedition, 444 
Cactus, men of fifth expedition eat, 

445 
Cactus flowers, 247 
Caddoans, 100 
Csesar, referred to, 199 



Index 



509 



Cahnenga, 384; see Coucnga 

Cajon Pass, Fremont comes to Span- 
ish trail near, 248 

Calaveras River, 236 

California, Alta, variety of AmcTin- 
dian stocks in, 27; why used for 
Upper California, 39; settlers from 
United States, 43-44; drifting from 
Mexico 43; Captain Wilkes explores, 
44; designs on, by England and the 
United wStates, 44; made known by 
second expedition, 109; plans for 
United States to acquire, no; 
Americans prohibited from entering, 
206; in a chaotic state, 207; citizens 
of, not displeased by Jones flag 
incident, 207; negotiations for pur- 
chase of, 207; navy to seize it, 207; 
trail of the Forty-niners, 211; au- 
thorities inquire about Fr6mont's 
business, 235; no poet there, 236; 
poppy, 237, 246; central valley of, 
237; pastoral period vanishing, 
238; southern road, 248, 253; to 
fall to the Americans in the event 
of war with Mexico, 284; chief 
subject of the impending war, 287; 
fall of, talked over fully during 
preparation of third expedition, 
287 ; Fremont third expedition going 
there with a military purpose, 295; 
mountains. Walker acquainted with, 
296; division between north and 
south, 307; imminence of separa- 
tion from Mexico, 307 ; government 
of, flimsy, 312; republic organised, 
333; transfer to British interests, 
336; proclamation of independence 
of. 339; complications, interna- 
tional, of Mexico and, 342; con- 
quest apparently complete, 357; 
divided into three districts, 357; 
conquest carried through by 
Kearny, Stockton, and Frdmont, 
384; readjustment of affairs, 384; 
Upper, 385 ; coast line corrected by 
Fremont, 386; conqueror of, 415; to 
be a slave State, 417; organises a 
permanent government, 418; pojui- 
lation increases unexpectedly, 418; 
laws of, continued, 418; prospects, 
418; constitution adopted, 419; 
first legislature meets, 419; land 
bills, Fremont charged with attempt 
to throttle debate on, 424; land title 
chaos for six years, 427; Mexicans 
swindled, 427; taxation, 427; In- 
dians resented the taking of their 



lands, 428; the old r(5gime, 428; 
reckless society, 428; the Sidney 
Ducks, 439; Road, fifth expedition 
reaches it, 439; mentioned, 453; 
boundary, Fremont's fifth expedi- 
tion arrives at, 454 

California Assembly, deposes Michel- 
torena and elects Pio Pic(j gover- 
nor, 306; adjourns sine die, 357 

California, Associated Pioneers of 
the Territorial Days of, propose 
monument to Fremont, 478 

California Battalion, organised, 350; 
laugh at government off'er, 356; 
sail for the south, 356; described, 
366; good conduct of, 367; reaches 
San Luis Obispo, 368; Bryant's 
story of a day of, 369; goes to Santa 
Barbara, 369; goes by the Rincon 
to San Buenaventura, 370; camps 
at San Fernando, 370; proceeds to 
Los Angeles, 372; assumed to be 
in the naval service, 374; expenses 
repudiated by Congress, 431 

California Range (Sierra Nevada), 
167 

Calif oniia7i, The, newspaper, 332; 
quotation from, 332 

Californians, expressed hope that 
England or France would seize 
California, 305; not united, 312 

Camilo Ranch, Ford defeats Alexican 
force there, 335 

Campaign songs of 1856, 459-460 

Campbell, Robert, aids fourth expe- 
dition, 389 

Cafiada de los Alisos, last defence of 
Los Angeles, 371 

Canadian River, Lieutenant Abert 
sent to explore, 289; a military 
reconnaissance, 289 

Canby, General, 413 

Cannibalism, proposed on fourth ex- 
pedition, 399; King eaten, 400; 
Fremont declares he will shoot any 
man who even hints at it, 443 

Canon and Canyon, 23 

Canyons, not dark, 93; of the Green 
and Colorado, 272 

Captain Sutter, establishment of, 221 

Carson City, 210 

Carson, Kit, mentioned, 41; paragon 
of mountaineers, 50; home in Taos, 
age of, 50; engaged by Fremont, 51 ; 
fine horseman, 57; with main body 
of first expedition, 62; joins second 
expedition, 122; duel with Shu- 
nan, 133; sent on to Fort Hall, 138; 



5IO 



Index 



Carson, Kit — Continued 

killed buffalo at Swamp Creek, 162; 
says beaver cuttings indicate Pacific 
drainage, 201 ; had been to Sacra- 
mento Valley, 221; recognises 
Coast Range from peak at Carson 
Pass, 224; goes with Godey to a 
rescue and returns, 250; wants to 
resent insult of the Moapa Indians, 
258; attacked at close range, 275; 
joins third expedition, 289; Fre- 
mont's admiration for, 289; escapes 
an arrow, 323; shoots Indian, 324; 
presents bow and arrow to Gillespie, 
324; shoots letter bearers, 335; to 
bear despatches, 357; to call on 
Senator Benton, 357; route not up 
the Virgin but by Gila River, 357; 
meets Kearny and is taken by him 
as guide, 359; sent as messenger, to 
Stockton, 363; incident of his re- 
turn with Kearny, trivial, 363; 
living at Taos, 401; mentioned, 

405 

Carson Pass, Fremont's latitude and 
longitude both incorrect as stated 
in his Report and in his Memoirs, 
212; correct figures, 212; approach 
to, 222, 223, 224, 225; camp at 
summit of, 226; latitude of, in- 
correct, 226; longitude of, incorrect, 
226; Fremont starts down Pacific 
slope, 226 

Carson, River, 202; camp on, 210; 
mistaken for West Walker River, 
220; Lake, 202 

Carts, cached, 80 

Carum gairdneri or Ydmpa root, 129 

Carvalho, S. N., artist and daguerre- 
otypist of fifth expedition, 432; 
his record chief source of informa- 
tion, 432; title of his book, 433; 
photographic contest with Bomar, 
433; names Fremont for President, 
434; Fremont communicates with 
Utes through, 441; describes Fre- 
mont, 442 ; shoots at a mark to im- 
press Utes, 442; assists Fremont in 
astronomical observations, 446 ; 
falters for the first time, 446; re- 
signs on account of health, 449; 
goes to Salt Lake, 449 ; wrote letter 
to Philadelphia, 450; goes to Cali- 
fornia by Virgin River route, 453; 
describes Cedar City, 453; his da- 
guerreotypes made into photo- 
graphs, 455 

Carver, Jonathan, mentioned, 31 



Carver, member of fourth expedition, 
wanders off, 398 

Cascade Range divides Oregon in 
two, 183 

Cascades of the Columbia, 175 

Castro, Jos6, incites insurrection 
against Governor Micheltorena, 
304; made Commandante-General 
by Governor Pio Pico, 306 ; ordered 
to expel Fremont, 310; issues order, 
310; sends cavalry towards Fre- 
mont's camp, 311; calls Fremont's 
party highwaymen, 311; sends 
message to Fremont 312; ordered 
Fremont to leave the country, 312; 
incites Indians against Frimont, 
footnote, 325; gathers horses, 327; 
headquarters at Santa Clara Mis- 
sion, 327; said to be rousing Indi- 
ans against Americans, 328; de- 
nounced by Sutter, 232; alarmed 
at increasing immigration, 233; 
charged by Sutter with inciting 
Indians against foreigners, 330; 
owing to prospect of clash with 
Fremont, Larkin sends for a U. S. 
warship, 330; uncomplimentary 
message sent to, 331; might have 
been captured with Santa Clara, 
334; sends Torre to reconnoitre 
Sonoma, 335 ; issues proclamations, 
338; difference with Pio Pico van- 
ishes, 348; proclaims martial law, 
349; evacuates Santa Clara, 351; 
retreats from Mission San Juan, 
351; desires to suspend hostilities, 
356; starts for Sonora, 357 

Castro, Manuel, captures Larkin, 

364 

Cataract Canyon, Colorado River, 
rock rolling in, by velocity of water, 
271 

Cathcart, Captain, of fourth expedi- 
tion, 398; sends Fremont a sword, 

479 J 

Catlin, George, Indian creed of, 98 

Catlinite, 12, footnote 

Cayuse Indians, 168; 

Cecilia, Fremont's first love, 6 

Cedar City, Utah, Fremont passes 
through on fifth expedition, 453; 
described by Carvalho, 453 

Central City, Nebraska, 97 

Central Pacific Railway, permitted 
winter crossing of Sierra, 205 ; snow- 
sheds, 205; line of, 299; Gunnison 
makes surveys for, 435 

Chabonard, hospitality of, 64 



Index 



511 



Chagres, River, Mrs. Fremont k'>*'^ 
up in a boat, 410; Fremont and liis 
wife go down it in a boat, 420; 
fever, Isthmus full of it, 420; fever, 
Fremont lias it, 421 

Champs Elysees, P'r(5mont lived on, 

431 

Charlotte, cook at Bent s Fort, 279 

Chauchilcs Indians, 304 

Chavez, Lieutenant, appears at Fre- 
mont camp with order expelling 
Frdmont from California, 310 

Cheops, Pyramid of, 199 

Cherry Creek, 120 

Cheyenne Indians, Fremont meets 
some, 58 

Chicago, mentioned, 50 

Childs, George, to publish Fremont's 
story, 455; contract cancelled, 455 

Chiles, J. B., 113; party divides, i6i ; 
one branch goes south under Wal- 
ker, the other by new route under 
Chiles, 161; referred to in footnote, 
201; crosses Great Basin, 213, 218; 
established at New Helvetia, 234; 
route of, 234; Walker returns from 
guiding, 266 

Chiles- Walker party, route of, 208 

Chimney Rock, 96 

Chino Ranch, American defeat at, 

Chinook, engaged, 181; in despair, 
224; still with Fremont, 246; taken 
to Washington, 281; learns to read 
and write, 281 

Chiracahua Apaches, 408 

Chittenden, H. M., quoted on Oregon 
trail, 81; on Independence Rock, 
82; distance of South Pass from 
ICansas City, 82 

Chokonen Apaches, 408 

Chouteau, Pierre, aids Nicollet, 10; 
Auguste and Pierre, 35; Cyprian, 
trading post of, 51; Pierre and 
Auguste, 51; Fremont meets, 51; 
landing, 51 

Chouteaus, the many, 107 

Christian Indians, 242; one guides 
Fremont's party, 243 

Christmas Lake, 193 

Chronometer stops, 217 

Chrysopylae, the Golden Gate, named, 

329 
Churchill, Winston, cited, 472, foot- 
note 
Cibolos, El Puerto de los, 438 
Circle, The, of Friends of the West, 49; 
favor emigration, 50; plan first 



Fremont expedition, 103; second, 
Fremont expedition, 106, 108 

Circle of Friends of the Medallion 
issue medal of Fremont, 480 

Circle Valley, Utah, I^'remont in, 439, 
446 

Claim-jumping, law passed in favor 
of, 465 

Clarendon Hotel, London, Fr(5mont 
arrested as he was leaving, 430 

Clark, General William, 107 

Clear Creek, 155 

Cliff Dwellers, 28 

Clistoyucca arborescens, 27, 245, 263 

Climate, 25 

Coast Range, 25, 175; seen from peak 
at Carson Pass, 224 

Cochetope, Pass, crossed by Beale and 
Heap, 434, 437-438; by Fremont, 
437; Creek, 438 

Cochise, Apache chief, 408 

Coffee, lost, 56; remarks on, 56 

Cold Creek, Nevada, Frdmont passes 
near, 297, 299 

Cold intense, 394, 395, 396 

Collingwood, British man-of-war, 351 

Colob Plateau, 267 

Colorado, high peaks in, 87 

Colorado City referred to, 124 

Colorado River, 21, 22; region un- 
known, 391 

Colt's revolvers, taken with fifth 
expedition, 433 

Colton, Rev. Walter, appointed al- 
calde of Monterey, 355 

Columbia, plains of, 157 

Columbia River, 2 1 ; discovered by 
Gray, 31; named after Gray's ship, 

31 
Comanches, 279 
Compromise of 1850, 422 
Comstock Lode, output of, 210 
Confiscation of property of foreigners, 

340 
Congress, asked for land grant for 
Pacific Railway, 387; dispute of, 
over slavery in California, 421, 
422; law passed denying all titles 
to land in California not proven 
on paper, 426; delays paying Fre- 
mont for cattle, 430; repudiates 
claim for California Battalion, 431 ; 
orders three lines of survey for 
railway route, 432; appropriates 
sum for sur\'cys by Frdmont, 452; 
refuses to reimburse Fr<5mont for 
property confiscated, 475, 478; 
votes pension to his widow, 477 



512 



Index 



Congress, U. S. man-of-war, 352-353 
Connelley, William E., quoted on 

Gilpin, 113; on Beckwourth, 118 
Conqueror of California, 415 
Conquest of California, apparently 

complete, 357; mistaken news of, 

372 

Continental Divide, second expedi- 
tion recrosses, 276 

Cook's Texan expedition, effect on 
Mexicans, 122 

Cooke, Colonel P. St. George, com- 
manding Mormon Battalion, 359 

Cordua, German named, 313 

Coronado, Vasquez de, exploration 
of, 29 

Corpus Christi, U. S. Army proceeds 
from, to Point Isabel, 347 

Cosme, Rio de San, 33 

Cosumne, River, 236; Talbot camps 
on, 308; Indian frozen, 398 

Cottonwood Creek, 243 

Couenga (or Cahuenga), Treaty of, 
signed, 371; news of capture of 
Los Angeles reaches Fremont be- 
fore signing of treaty, 372; capitu- 
lation began with visit to Fremont 
of Senora Ruiz, 370 

Coues, Dr. Elliott, quoted, 7< 

Coulterville, messenger from Mrs. 
Fremont goes to, for aid, 466; Home 
Guard marches for Bear Valley, 
466 

Court-martial, to justify howitzer, 
given up by Benton, 283; Fremont, 
charges of, 380; majority of the 
court recommends clemency, 382 

Coutts, Miss, invites the Fremonts 
to dinner, 430 

Cow Spring, 407 

Cowie and Fowler captured and killed 
by Mexicans, 334 

Coyotes mentioned, 60 

Crane's Branch named after the 
Delaware Indian, 295 

Crane the Delaware killed, 320 

Crater Lake and National Park, 
188 

Creole French, meaning of, 11 2, foot- 
note 

Creutzfeldt killed by Utes, 435 

Crooks, Ramsay, goes east from 
Astoria with Stuart, 36; censures 
Fr6mont, 83; letter to newspaper, 
83; came through South Pass with 
Stuart, 84, 107, 167; denounces 
Fremont, 460 

Cross, emblem of the, Fremont carves 



it on Independence Rock, 91; cut 
on trees in Cochetope Pass, 437 

Crossing of the Fathers, 33 

Cummins, Major, 112, 390 

Currant Creek, 278 

. Gushing, Caleb, Attorney-General, re- 
verses decision of Commissioners 
on Mariposa, 464; reasons, 464 

Cut-off, Hastings, 294; Miller, 259, 
260 

Cyane, U. S. man-of-war, arrives at 
Monterey, 348 



D 



Dalles, the, of the Columbia, 172; 
Fremont to start back from, 1 73 ; 
Applegate's wreck at, 173 

Dana, Captain, Fremont takes supper 
with, 376 

Davis, Jefferson, objects to Califor- 
nia senators being seated, 422; 
votes for abolition of slavery in 
District of Columbia, 426; Secre- 
tary of War, names Gunnison to 
conduct survey instead of Fremont, 

432 
Dayton, William L., nominated for 

Vice-President with Fremont, 457 
Dayton, Nevada, 210 
Death Valley, 24, 236, 246 
Deer Creek, camp at mouth of, 79, 

313 

Delaware, Charley, breaks his nose, 
315; Crane, killed, 320; Denny, 
killed, 321; plan to trap Klamaths, 
322; Sagundai, kills Klamath, 323; 
Wetowah, Creek named after, 324 

Delawares, engaged, 112; killed by 
Sioux, 279; have designs on solitary 
Indian, 297; sent ahead as scouts, 
303; blacken faces, 321; kill three 
Mexicans, 335; with fifth expedi- 
tion, 432; Solomon, 432; devoted 
to Fremont, 433; go home for 
preparations, 433; noble Indians, 
434; Captain Wolf, 434; spoke 
English, 434; prepare against 
prairie fire, 435; discover wild 
horse and kill it for food, 441; 
Weluchas gets a deer, 446; sent 
back after Fuller, 447 

Dellenbaugh, encounter of, with 
Rufus, 257 

Dellenbaugh Butte named, 439 

Del Norte, town of, fourth expedition 
at site of, 395 

Del Sur, 247 



Index 



513 



Denny, the Delaware, killed, 321 
Denny's Brani'h, Fremont names, 

316; returns to it with ten of iiis 

best men, 317 
Denver and Rio Grande Railway 

crosses Green River, 291, 439 
Derosier, wanders off and returns 

deranged, 227; lost, 234; turns up 

in St. Louis, 234 
Desehutes River, 172 
Dcseoteaux climbs Frdmont Peak, 86 
Deseret, State of, name of Mormon 

territory, 153 
Desert, Mohave, 244, 245, 246; Salt 

Lake, 293; Escalante, 453 
Dc Smet, Father, opinion of the Ore- 
gon Trail, 81, 208 
Detrital Valley, Arizona, southern 

limit of Clistoyucca Arborescens, 

245 
Deux Oreilles, Les, French name of 

Long's Peak, 63 
Devil's Gate, The, 82, 216, 217 
Devil's Lake, northernmost point of 

Nicollet expedition, 14 
Diamond hitch in packing horses, 174 
Diamond Valley, second expedition 

goes from it over to East Carson 

River, 222 
Diary, extract from author's, 254, 

257, 260 
Dieguefio, possible derivation of 

"Digger," 28, footnote 
Diet of Indians, 141-142 
Digger Indians, 28 
Diplomatic relations between Mexico 

and United States strained, 206 
Disappointment Island, now called 

Fremont Island, 151 
District Court reverses decision of 

Commissioners in Mariposa case, 

464 
Dix, Senator, confers frequently 

with Benton, 286 
Dodge, Senator, 16 
Dodson, Jacob, at Carson Pass, 226; 

accompanies Fremont on third 

expedition, 288; with Fremont on 

the great ride, 375 
Dog, obtained at Bear River, Idaho, 

eaten, 222 ; presented by Utes near 

Parowan, eaten, 448 
Dog soldiers of Indian camps, 73 
Dog Tlamath, eaten, 225 
Dogs as beasts of burden, 280 
Dolores Mission, 237 
Dominguez, Padre, with Escalante, 

32 



Donclsnn nominated for Vice-Presi- 
dent, 456 

])( inner, 205 

I Jonner party, overwhelmed, 209; eat 
Indians, 209 

Donner, Lake, 299; named after 
Donner party, 299; Pass, altitude 
of, 299 

Dragoons sent back by Kearny, 359 

Drips to be guide of first expedition, 

51 
Drunkenness, Bear Flag men charged 

with, 340 
Dry lakes, 253 

Ducatel, of fourth expedition, 398 
Duchesne Fork of the Uinta, 271 
Dudgeon, Anthony, receives letter 

from Crooks, 83 
Dundonald, Lady, rents Paris house 

to the Fremonts, 431 
Dutton, Clarence E., named southern 

part of Wasatch uplift the "High 

Plateaus," 267 
Duvall, surgeon of the Portsmouth, 

arranges Fremont's medicine chest, 

331 
Dwight, Frederick, 112 



E 



Eagle Tail River, compact made on, 

443 

East Fork Sevier, Frdmont on, 439 

Eastman, Charles, explains Indians' 
lack of cupidity, 99 

Egloffstein, topographer to fifth ex- 
pedition, 432 

Eight-mile Creek, camp on, 182 

El Dorado Canyon, 254 

Elizabeth Lake, 247 

Elk Head River, 274 

Elm Grove on the Santa F6 Trail, 113 

El Puerto de los Cibolos, 438 

El Vado de los Padres, 33 

Emancipation proclamation, Fri5- 
mont's the first, 470 

Emigrant, at Fort Vancouver, 175; 
roads of 1849, 202; train, first over 
the Sierras, 208; trains harassed 
by Moapariats, 256; trail of '49, 
299; Indian shooters, 322 

Emigration, to Oregon, 47; Fremont's 
expedition to aid, 48 

Encyclopedia Britannica, 153 

England, views of Duflot de Mofras 
on England and California, 44; 
fleet of, to take possession of San 
Francisco Bay, 287; desired by 



514 



Index 



England — Continued 

Califomians to seize the country, 

305; must not get a foothold, 319; 

no intention of going to war over 

CaHfornia, 343 
Englehardt, Father Zephyrin, cited, 

238 
Engleman, Doctor, reads barometer, 

52 1 aids fourth expedition, 389 
EngHshmen ready to join Fremont, 

311 

Erbsenwurst, referred to, 56 

Escalante Desert, Cedar City on 
edge of, 453 

Escalante, Padre, attempts to connect 
Missions of Rio Grande and Cali- 
fornia Alta, 32 ; explores as far as 
Utah Lake, 33; returns to the 
Moki Towns, 33 ; crosses Colorado, 
33; almost discovers Great Salt 
Lake, 135; calls Green River, 
Buenaventura, 244; crosses Green 
River, 273; trail of, plotted on 
War Department map of i860, 

.439 

Etienne Provost, discoverer of South 
Pass according to Chittenden, 82 

Evans, Colorado, near Fort St. Vrain, 
65 



Fales Hot Springs, 216 

Fall Creek, 161 

Fall (Deschutes) River, 172; last camp 
on, 184; branch of Sacramento, 
Fremont camps above it on Pitt 
River, 315 

Farm products of Plains region, value 
of to-day, 121 

Farnham, Thomas J., Buenaventura 
River, 22; at Bear River soda 
springs, 1839, 142; on Snake River, 
157; remarks on Hudson Bay Com- 
pany, 165; describes Fort Boise, 
166; description of Fort Davy 
Crockett, 273 

Far West, character of, in 1841, 20 

Feather River, Fremont on, 312 

Ferguson, of fourth expedition, 398; 
Godey reaches him, 401 

Ferris, A. C, quoted, 420 

Field, Kate, bitter opponent of the 
Mormons, 448; asks Fremont to 
speak against them, 448 

Fiery Narrows of Stuart, 94 

Fifth Fremont expedition, 432; per- 
sonnel of, 432 ; arms of, 433 ; baggage 



apportionment, 433; at V/estport, 
433; at Shawnee Mission, 434; goes 
to Saline Fork, 434; waits for Fre- 
mont, 434; procures two teepees, 
436; crosses Sandhill Pass, 437; 
Cochetope Pass, 437; has no guide, 
438; arrives at Green River, 438; 
crossed near San Rafael, 438; on 
Spanish trail, 438; along San Ra- 
fael Swell, 439; Fremont River, 
439; Rabbit Valley, 439; Grass 
Valley, 439; Fish Lake, 439; Otter 
Creek, 439; East Fork Sevier, 439; 
Circle Valley, 439; Fremont Pass, 
439; at California Road, 439; 
Parowan, 439; meets Utes in Un- 
compahgre Valley, 441; in Grand 
River Valley, 441; Utes demand 
pay for horse, 441; threaten the 
party, 442; necessary to kill horse 
for food, 443; men told to die to- 
gether like men, 443; compact to 
stand by each other, 443 ; purchase 
of grass seed from the Utes, 444; 
lame horse bought for food, 444; 
porcupine shot, 444; pole of great 
lodge broken, 444; twenty-seven 
animals killed for food, 444; goods 
of, cached, 444; method of killing 
horse, 445; each horse killed to 
serve six meals, 445; entrails made 
into soup, 445; live on horse meat 
for fifty days, 445; Fuller dies, 447; 
arrives at Parowan, 448; treated 
with great kindness, 448 ; changes in 
party and fresh start, 449; public 
impression that it was annihilated, 
450; two routes suggested west 
from Parowan, 453; strikes across 
Escalante Desert, 453 ; reaches west 
boundary of Utah, 453; crosses 
Nevada, 454; no human beings 
encountered, 454; reaches Sierra 
Nevada, 454; blocked by snow, 
454; turns south, 454; attacks a 
band of Indians and steals their 
horses, 454; goes over a pass, 454; 
at San Francisco, 455 

"Fifty-four-forty or fight" not rea- 
sonable, 38 

Filley, O. D., furnishes camp equip- 
ment for fourth expedition, 389; 
maker of the Dutch Oven, 389 

Fillmore (and Donelson), nominated 
by Know- Nothing party for Presi- 
dent (and Vice-President), 456; 
declares Southern States ought to 
withdraw from Union if Fr6mont 



Index 



515 



Fillmore — Continued 

should be elected, 458; gets only 
one State, 463 

First expedition, an initial one, 48; 
object of, 49; authorised in a limited 
way, 50; number of members, 53; 
begins march, 53; route across 
Kansas, 56; fords South Platte, 60; 
divided, 61; meets Beckwourth, 63; 
at Fort Laramie, 73, 75; at South 
Pass, 82; at Fremont Peak, 86; 
on return, 90; at the Missouri, 
loi; at St. Louis, loi 

Fish, buffalo, called also humpback, 
291 

Fish Lake, Utah, Fremont passes 
near, 439 

Fisher's ranch chosen for camp, 308 

Fishing or Salmon Falls, 160; second 
expedition at, 163 

Fitzpatrick, Thom.as, mentioned, 41, 
74; camped with Utes, 90; robbed, 
90; wrecked in Platte Canyon, 92 ; 
guide to second expedition, 104; 
called by Arapahos White Head or 
Broken Hand, 119; at St. Vrain's 
Fort, 124; complains through Gen. 
Clark of treatment by rival fur 
hunters, 126; charges American Fur 
Company with instigating Indian 
depredations, 126; in charge of 
second subdivision, 127; takes 
messages to Washington in Car- 
son's place, 359; Indian agent, 391 

Flag, American, raised on Fremont 
Peak, 86; now in museum, Los 
Angeles, 86; a Sioux war emblem, 
140; to be raised by navy, 328; 
raised at Monterey, San Francisco, 
Sonoma, and Sutter's Fort, 349; 
raised at Los Angeles, 357 

Flaming Gorge, 272 

Flandin, Eugene, with Nicollet, 11 

Flores Revolt, the, 360 

Florida exchanged for claim to Rio 
Grande, 37 

Flowers, wide range of, 246; cactus, 
247 

Floyd, Governor, offers Fremont 
Democratic nomination for Presi- 
dency, 456 

Fog. 195-196 

Fontaine qui Bouit (or qui Bouillc), 
Boiling Spring Creek, 118-121, 277 

Food cost in California in '49, 413 

Foote, Senator, trouble with Fremont, 
424; attack on Senator Benton, 
425 



Ford, Henry L., defeats Mexican 
force at Olompali, 335; Captain, 
Bear Flag army, 339 

Foreigners not allowed to buy land, 

327 
Forest fires, 66 

Fort Bent, description of, 279 
Fort Boisais, 166; see Fort Boise 
Fort Boise, Whitman arrives at, with 
two-wheeled vehicle, 159; second 
expedition arrives at, 165; estab- 
lished to oust Wyeth, 165; con- 
struction of, 166; Oregon trail 
crossed the Snake at, 166 
Fort Bridger established and site of, 

131 
Fort Brown, 314, 315 
Fort Churchill, 210 
Fort Collins, 128 
Fort Davy Crockett in Brown's Hole, 

273 

Fort Hall, 157; second expedition 
arrives there, 158; founded by 
Wyeth, 158; location of, 158; Farn- 
ham arrives at, 159; construction 
of, 159; Dr. Newell takes running 
gear of waggon from, to the Colum- 
bia, 159; Fremont recommends 
establishment there of military 
post, 160; Kearny and Fremont 
pass, on return, 378 

Fort John, a name for Fort Laramie, 
67 

Fort Lancaster, 119 

Fort Laramie, sometimes called Fort 
John, 67; importance of , 74; chosen 
for government military post, 74; 
called Fort William, 74; date of 
erection, 74; description of, 74; 
description of, by Parkman, 75 

Fort Lisa, site of, 38 

Fort Lupton, 119 

Fort Nez Perc^, Hudson Bay post, 
171 

Fort Platte, 67 

Fort St. Vrain, 62 

Fort Uinta, property of Roubideau, 
272; location of, 272; latitude of, 
272; Indian agency, 272; destroyed 
by the Utes, 272 

Fort Vancouver, 175-176; Frdmont 
arrives at, 175 

Fort William (Bent's Fort), 279 

Fort William, first name for Fort 
Laramie, 74 

Forty-nine, days of, rough and un- 
comfortable, 41 1 ; San Francisco 
society in, 413; food supply, 413; 



5i6 



Index 



Forty-nine — Contimied 

cigarette smoking, 414; transforma- 
tion at Yerba Buena, 428; songs of, 
429 

Forty-niners, California trail of, 211; 
arrival of many, 418 

Fossil, 138 

Fountain Creek, 118 

Fourth Fremont expedition, planned, 
387; organised in St. Louis, 389; 
arrives at Pueblo, 392 ; Preuss topo- 
grapher of, 393 ; enters first moun- 
tains, 393; intense cold, 394; goes 
through Roubideau Pass, 394; in 
San Luis Valley, 395 ; crosses divide 
of San Juan Mountains, 396 ; retreat 
of, 396; men discouraged, 396; 
party starts for relief, 397; Proue 
freezes to death, 397; on Rio 
Grande again, 397; second relief 
under Fremont, 397; remainder of 
men form several parties and go 
down Rio Grande, 398; starvation, 
398; men die, 398-399; relief sent 
back from Taos, 400; survivors 
reach Taos, 401 ; Bill Williams and 
Dr. Kern go back to scene of dis- 
aster, 401; killed, 401; end of 
fourth expedition, 401 ; death re- 
cord of, 402; supposed to have 
terminated successfully, 402; con- 
tinues to California, 406, 407, 409; 
at Los Angeles, 410 

Fourth of July, celebration of, 61 

Fraeb (Frapp) killed, 275 

France, tendency to recognise the 
Confederacy, 475 

Franciscans, 408 

Franklin, eastern end of Santa Fe 
trail with Westport and Inde- 
pendence, 41 

Franklin Lake, 297 

Frapp, see Fraeb 

Frederick William IV., of Prussia, 
bestows medal on Fremont, 425 

Fremont Battalion, see California 
Battalion 

Fremont, John Charles, names Golden 
Gate, i; first to give accurate ac- 
count of Far West, 2; born, 4; 
taken to Charleston, 5; studies 
law, 5 ; at school, 6 ; expelled from 
school, 7; receives degrees from 
same, 7 ; teacher of mathematics on 
the Natchez, 7; returns to Charles- 
ton, 7; on railway survey, 8; first 
intercourse with red men, 8 ; among 
the Cherokees, 9; appointed sec- 



ond Lieutenant topographical en- 
gineers, 9; assistant to Nicollet, 
11; first season, 11; experience 
with prairie fire, 12; lost on the 
Plains, 14; first buffalo chase, 14; 
arrives at Prairie du Chien, 15; 
overland to St. Louis, 15; goes to 
Washington, 15; meets Hassler, 15; 
domiciled with Hassler and Nicol- 
let, 15; plots Nicollet map with 
Lieut. Scammon, 16; first meeting 
with Jessie Benton, 17; chosen 
leader of the great western expedi- 
tion, 18; crosses Escalante's trail, 
34; suffers from land grant, 47; 
intention of first expedition, 48; 
feels himself drawn into import- 
ant political events, 49 ; has orders 
for destination of first expedition 
changed, 50; departs from Washing- 
ton, 50; meets Kit Carson, 50; en- 
gages him, 51; becomes acquainted 
with the Chouteaus, 51; starts on 
first expedition, 53; early portrait 
of, 53; studies surroundings, 56; 
meets party of trappers, 58; barom- 
etrical observations, quality of, 60; 
divides party on Platte, 61 ; advance 
party, names of, 62; meets Beck- 
wourth, 63; talks with Arapahos, 
63; arrives at Fort St. Vrain, 
65; starts for Fort Laramie, 66; 
follows Long's route up South 
Platte, 68; considered an in- 
truder by West Point graduates, 
72; at the Sioux camp, 72; offers 
to let men afraid to proceed, 
return, 73; chiefs protest at Lara- 
mie, 75; fails to mention Carson, 
76; has trees felled for horse-feed, 
77; takes daily observations, 79; 
urged by Bissonette to turn back, 
80 ; tells men to return if dissatisfied, 
80; keeps up North Platte to mouth 
of Sweetwater, 80; goes up Sweet- 
water River, 82; arrives at South 
Pass, 82; censured for claiming to 
be discoverer of South Pass, 82; 
reaches Pacific waters, 84; repairs 
barometer, 85; climbs peak of 
Wind River Range, 86; back 
through South Pass, 90; at Inde- 
pendence Rock, 90; carves cross 
on Independence Rock, 91 ; launches 
boat on the Sweetwater, 91; 
launches boat on Platte, 92; 
wrecked, 94; resumes travel by 
cart, 95; back at Fort Laramie, 96; 



Index 



517 



Fr6mont, John Charles — Continncd 
builds a bull-boat and launclu'S it, 
97; reaches Grand Island, 97; ar- 
rives at Missouri, loi ; goes down in 
canoe to St. Louis, loi; writes re- 
port, 102; second expedition plan, 
103; leaves Washington by stage- 
coach, 103; requests howitzer from 
Col. Kearny, 104; arrives Kansas 
City on second expedition, 105; 
Mrs. Frdmont urges haste, 105; or- 
der to return, 106; a flimsy excuse 
to break up expedition, 109; was to 
find out all he could, 1 1 1 ; divides 
second expedition, 115; Fitzpatrick 
in charge of main division, second 
expedition, 1 15 ; map published with 
Memoirs not good, 117; map with 
jRepor/, 1 1 7 ; arrives at St. Vrain's, 
117; goes on up Platte, 119; at 
Bent's Fort, 121; disappointed 
with news from Taos, 122; unites 
party again, 124; strange statement 
about passes, 125; on Cache a la 
Poudre, 127; subdivides party a 
second time, 127; his special com- 
panions, 128; mistake as to loca- 
tion of Fort Bridger, 131; in Mexi- 
can territory again, 132; descrip- 
tion of Green River, 134; makes 
mistake on names of Black's Fork 
and Ham's Fork, 137; on Oregon 
Trail, 137; remarks on Salt Lake, 
139; goes down Bear River in 
boat, 147; mentions Balboa, 150; 
first scientific man on shores of 
Salt Lake, 150; rubber boat 
launched on Weber River to navi- 
gate Salt Lake, 150; out on the 
inland sea, 151; camps on island in 
Great Salt Lake, 151, 152; takes 
water from Salt Lake, 152; makes 
soundings, 152; error regarding 
Great Salt Lake, 153; Brigham 
Young charges mistake about 
Salt Lake, 154; Fremont's denial, 
154; quotation from, 154; recom- 
mends establishment of military 
post at Fort Hall, 160; starts to 
follow trail of Chiles party, 161; 
originator of term Great Basin, 168; 
follows Indian trail over Blue 
Mountains, 169; secures a canoe, 
173; goes down to Fort Vancouver 
by river, 174; companions on trip, 
174; survey connected with that of 
Wilkes, 175; at Fort Vancouver, 
175; does not go to Pacific, 177; 



docs not know about Jcdediah 
Smith'sroutc, 177; relics on Buena- 
ventura River to recruit his party, 
180; goes up the Columbia from 
Fort Vancouver, 180; thinks him- 
self on Sacramento River, 191; ex- 
pects to see Buenaventura River, 
201 ; decides to cross Sierra Nevada, 
202, 203; surmise as to his mission, 
206; second expedition estimated, 
207; meets Chiles near Sutter's, 
208; incorrect longitudes, 212; per- 
ceives character of country, 213; 
goes through Devil's Gate, 216; on 
West Walker River, 217; Indians 
tell of a previous party, 218; gives 
wrong latitude for camp of Janu- 
ary 31, 1844, 220; explains to the 
Washos, 220; thinks himself on 
Salmon Trout River but was on 
East Carson River, 221; cHmbs 
high peak near Carson Pass, 225; 
falls into river, 227; with small 
party pushes on to Sutter's Fort, 
227; arrives at Sutter's Fort, 228; 
starts back with provisions for 
second division, 229; remains twelve 
days at Sutter's, 234; return party 
and return route, 235; California 
authorities inquire about his busi- 
ness, 235; camps with Yokuts, 242; 
at Tehaehapi Pass, 244; reaches 
Spanish Trail, 248; leaves a record 
at the Archilette, 252; arrives at 
Las Vegas, Nevada, 253; on Spanish 
Trail, 255; insulted by Moapa 
Indians, 258; arrives at Bcavcrdara 
Creek, 261 ; crosses to Great Basin 
drainage, 263; confuses Tehaehapi 
with Walker's Pass, 266; joined 
by Joseph Walker, 266; camps at 
Little Salt Lake, 266; circumtours 
the Great Basin, 267; meets Chief 
Walker (Wakar), 268; arrives at 
Sevier River, 268; denies Brigham 
Young's statement that Fremont 
thought Utah Lake and Salt Lake 
connected, 269; wrote a letter 
about it, 269; what he said, 269; 
knowledge of Great Basin, 270; 
declines to return by the Oregon 
Trail, 270; belief that country was 
to fall to the United States, 270; 
camps near canyon of Green River, 
272; describes fight between Ara- 
pahos and Utcs, 278; goes down 
Oil Creek, Utc Creek, and Beaver 
Creek, 278; arrives at and departs 



5i8 



Index 



Fremont, John Charles — Continued 
from Bent's Fort, 279; disbands 
second expedition in St. Louis, 280; 
overdue, 282; Report of, creates 
sensation, 282; made a Captain, 
283; the only recognition from his 
own government, 283; appointed 
Major-General, 283; knowledge of 
governmental intentions, 284; 
dines with Webster, 284; critics of, 
285; not to be judged by standard 
of Buchanan's empty phrases, 285; 
probability that second expedition 
was officially intended to go where 
it went, 286; knowledge of plans 
of the Administration, 286; third 
expedition planned, 287; Mexican 
war possibilities considered, 287 
private instructions of, 287; proba 
bilities made known to him, 287 
course of action, 287; leaves Wash- 
ington for third expedition, 2 
crosses trail of 1844, 291; down to 
Utah Lake, 291; rides out to Ante- 
lope Island, 292; to cross Great 
Basin, 293; says none of his men 
knew about the Humboldt River 
region, 293; imperative to reach 
Mexico quickly, 295; names Hum- 
boldt River, 295; selects his sepa- 
rate party, third expedition, 296; 
less difficulty with desert travelling, 
298; divides third expedition a 
second time, 298 ; camps on Walker 
River, 298; on Truckee River, 299; 
Donner Pass, 299; arrives at Sut- 
ter's Fort on third expedition, 301 ; 
excitement created by previous 
visit, 301 ; thinks Bidwell reluctant 
to help him, 302 ; cool toward Bid- 
well, 303; calls on Larkin, accord- 
ing to Bidwell, 303; goes up San 
Joaquin Valley, 303; fails to find 
division under Talbot, 304; politi- 
cal situation on his arrival in Cali- 
fornia on third expedition, 306; 
does not trust Mexican officials, 
307; calls on Larkin, American 
Consul, and meets prominent Cali- 
fornians, 307; asks permission to 
winter in San Joaquin Valley, 308; 
receives permission to explore 
south to the Colorado River, 308; 
camps near San Jose, 308; goes into 
the settled country, 309; camp at 
Hartnell's ranch near Monterey, 
309; an intruder, 310; arms of his 
party, 310; no permission had been 



granted him by the Mexican Gov- 
ernment, 310; refuses to leave, 310; 
builds fort on Gavilan Peak, 311; 
abandons it, 31 1 ; on Feather River, 
312; follows route of Jedediah 
Smith, 313; names Mount Linn, 
313; proceeds northward, 315; his 
intention, 315; performs a surgical 
operation, 315; names Rhett Lake, 
315; secret of his success with his 
men, 316; mistake about Klamath 
Lake and head of Sacramento, 316; 
Neal and Sigler arrive at camp, 
317; returns to meet Gillespie, 317; 
opinion on conditions and on Gil- 
lespie's information, 319; Ban- 
croft's statement of duty, 319; 
attacked by Klamaths, 320; at- 
tacks Klamath village, 322; rides 
down Indian, 323 ; writes to Senator 
Benton, 324; says Indians were 
supplied with arms by English, 324; 
intention stated of going home, 
325; talk of exploring Colorado 
River a ruse, 325; imaginary force 
to attack, 327; patriotic motives 
of, 328; what he knew, 328; only 
representative of army on Pacific 
Coast, 328; Neal and Hensley 
accompany him, 329; corrects 
Wilkes's observations, 329; names 
Golden Gate, 329; camps at the 
Buttes, 329; deals blow to Indians, 
330; moves camp to Sutter's Fort, 
331; at Sutter's, 331; best posted 
on Government's intentions, 335; 
Royce's criticism, 335 ; did not wish 
to commit the Government, 335; 
sends resignation to Benton, 335; 
interview with Sutter, 337; tells 
Sutter he is a Mexican, 337; sus- 
picious of Bidwell and Sutter both, 
337; assumes command of Bear 
Flag and all forces, 338 ; plan shown, 
338; locks up Risdon Moore, 338; 
tells the men of the revolt that they 
must act properly, 339; reason 
for fostering Bear Flag revolt, 342 ; 
all his expeditions directed toward 
acquisition of California, 342; pre- 
sence in California a safeguard, 
343; letter to Montgomery, 344; 
could have gone home if he had 
wanted to, 345; playing a waiting 
game, 345-346; little ground for 
condemnation, 346; spikes guns of 
Fort San Joaquin, 350; number of 
his men at Sonoma, 350; says set- 



Index 



519 



Frdmont, John Charles — Continued 
tiers' movement would have eol- 
lapscd without him, 350, 351; re- 
turns to Sutter Fort eamp, 351; 
receives news of Sloat's flaj^ raisinj^, 
351; goes to visit Sloat, 351; 
allowed his men no liquors, 352; 
interview with Sloat, 352; calls on 
Stockton, 353; declares he may 
return home, 353; Stockton re- 
quests him to remain, 353; accepts 
Stockton's proposal to take service 
under him, 354; wished to continue 
former methods on land, 355; to 
be governor of California, 357; 
marches to San Fernando Mission, 
360; goes to Monterey on the Stir- 
ling, 361; condemns Kearny, 363; 
says Kearny declined offer of Stock- 
ton, 364; Kearny disappointed at 
not being made governor, 364; raises 
more troops, 364; appointed Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel, 364; searches for 
Manuel Castro at San Juan Bau- 
tista, 365; number of men in his 
battalion, 365; contemptuously 
treated by Government, 367; ac- 
count of Pico, 369; visited by 
Sefiora Bernarda Ruiz, 369; inter- 
view with messengers bringing 
news of fall of Los Angeles, 370; 
Frenchman brings message from 
Kearny, 370; sends Jesus Pico to 
treat with Andreas Pico, 371; goes 
himself, 371; signs treaty of Cou- 
enga, 371; receives news of fall of 
Los Angeles before treaty was 
signed, 372; goes to Los Angeles, 
372; calls on Stockton first, then 
Kearny, 372; controversy between 
Fremont-Stockton and Kearny, 
372; decides to stand by Stockton, 
373; refuses to obey Kearny, 373; 
says Stockton and Kearny must 
adjust question of rank themselves, 
374; recognised as governor for 
fifty days, 374; believes an out- 
break imminent, 374; comes to 
Kearny at Monterey, 375; con- 
cludes to obey Kearny, 375; the 
great ride, 375, 376; interview with 
Kearny, 376; difference with Colo- 
nel Mason, 377; challenges Mason, 
377; desires to return home, 378; 
ordered to return with Kearny, 
378; start on return from Sutter's 
Fort, 378; nineteen men of his 
third expedition return with him 



to States, 378; returned after Cali- 
fornia cf)nquest by Donner Pass, 
378; under arrest, 379; declines 
public dinner in St. Louis, 379; 
death of his mother, 379; sword 
presented by citizens of Charleston, 
379; desires a full trial, 380; court- 
martial, 380; defence conducted 
by Wm. Carey Jones and Senator 
Benton, 380; found guilty on all 
charges, 380; sentenced to dismis- 
sal, 380; condemned on a techni- 
cality, 381; Kearny brought but 
one charge, 382; a Lieutenant- 
Colonel at 32, 382; mutiny charge 
not confirmed by the President, 
382; sentence of, remitted by Pres- 
ident Polk, 383; resigns, 383; age 
of, 384; held in high esteem by 
native Califomians, 384; arranges 
for purchase of Mission farm, 384; 
gets Mariposa grant instead, 385; 
controversy with Wilkes, 386; in- 
terested in Pacific Railway, 387; 
plans fourth expedition, 387; organ- 
ises in St. Louis, 389; the stirrup 
cup, 390; plan of fourth expedition, 
391; declares he will never cross 
continent again except by Panama, 
392; despondency, 392; did not 
complete his Memoirs, 393, foot- 
note; decides to retreat, 396; states 
men were to follow him, 397; dis- 
gusted with Proue's lack of effort, 
397; starvation, 398; march down 
the Rio Grande, 398; meets a Ute, 
son of Wakar, 399; secures horses, 
399; finds King party, 400; reaches 
Red River settlement, 400; arriv-es 
at Taos, 400; Godey sent back on 
relief, 400; sees no obstacle to 
railway, 401 ; resolution of thanks 
to, at St. Louis, 402; blamed Bill 
Williams for disaster to fourth 
expedition, 402; letter to J. R. 
Snyder cited, 402; his part in con- 
quest of the West, 403; intends to 
make California his home, 404; 
vision of a home, 404; friends at 
Taos, 405; his ride rivalled by 
Aubrey, 405; at Santa F^, 406; 
leaves Albuquerque for Califor- 
nia, 406; goes down Rio Grande, 
407; reaches Tucson, 408; reaches 
Gila River, 409; meets Sonora- 
Mcxicans, 409; hears of gold dis- 
covery, 409; arrives at Colorado 
River, 410; at Los Angeles, 410; 



520 



Index 



Fremont, John Charles — Continued 
helps Saunders to buy family, 414; 
censured for Mariposa purchase, 
415; buys "Mariposas," 415-416; 
expected to develop Mariposa as a 
cattle ranch, 416; appointed on 
Boundary Commission, 416; re- 
ceives a letter from Jacob R. Sny- 
der, 416; mentioned for Senator, 
417; declines to serve as boundary 
commissioner, 417; ride to Mon- 
terey from San Jos4, 419; elected 
Senator, 419; mystery of country 
dispelled by, 420; arrives in New 
York, 421; presents credentials 
in Congress, 422; draws short term, 
422 ; invited to attend Pacific Rail- 
way convention in Philadelphia, 
422; illness prevents attendance, 
423; writes giving reasons why 
railway would be feasible, 423; 
further exploration in his mind, 
423; introduces measures for Cali- 
fornia, 423 ; opposes tax on product 
of mines, 423; believed West inex- 
haustible, 424; record in Senate, 
424; trouble with Senator Foote, 
424; charged with attempt to 
throttle debate, 424; letter from 
Humboldt, 425; gold medal from 
King of Prussia, 425; proposed by 
Ritter for member of Berlin Geo- 
graphical Society, 425; receives 
Founder's Medal, Royal Geograph- 
ical Society, 425; acknowledg- 
ment to Sir Roderick Murchison, 
425; causes land bill to be altered, 
425; calls the Royal Geographical 
Society his alma mater, 425; re- 
turns to California, 426; has Cha- 
gres fever again, 426; charged with 
electioneering for Senatorship, 426; 
a candidate, 426; supported by 
Free State party, 426; defeated, 
426; opposed to slavery, 426; 
votes against abolition of slavery 
in District of Columbia, 426; occu- 
pies himself with his Mariposa 
interests, 426; arranges to realise 
on Mariposa, 427; repudiates sale 
to Sargent, 428; contract for sup- 
plying beef, 429-430; could not 
get pay, 430; reimbursed, 430; 
house in Washington burns, 430; 
goes East, 430; goes to England, 
430; sojourns in London, 430; pre- 
sented to Queen, 430; in prison, 
431; bailed by George Peabody, 



431; goes to Paris, 431; returns to 
America, 432 ; selected to head new 
expedition, 432 ; made a proposition 
to conduct surveys for the Govern- 
ment, 432; organises fifth expedi- 
tion, 432; chooses dead of winter, 
432; at Westport, 433; at Shawnee 
mission, 434; returns to Westport 
ill, 434; named for the Presidency 
by Carvalho, 434; not a pathfinder 
for part of the route of fifth expe- 
dition, 434; Gunnison precedes 
him, 435; returns to camp from 
Westport, 435; dashes through 
prairie fire, 436; at Bent's, 436; 
secures teepees, 436; first to at- 
tempt survey for a railway across 
the western mountains, 436 ; reason 
for going in winter, 436; takes no 
guide on fifth expedition, 438; 
route across Wasatch country, 439 ; 
a pathfinder, 439, 440 ; Utes demand 
pay for horse, 441 ; communicates 
with Utes through Carvalho, 441, 
442 ; his lodge sacred from intrusion, 
442; speech to his men, 443; de- 
clares he will shoot any man who 
hints at cannibalism, 443; makes 
a cache of goods of fifth expedition, 
444; gives up messing with his 
officers, 445; gives out, 445; does 
not neglect astronomical observa- 
tions, 446; informs men Parowan 
is near, 446; consults compass and 
starts, 446; in Fremont Pass, 446; 
offers rifle for a deer, 446; says 
Mormons saved him and his from 
starvation, 448; declines to intro- 
duce Kate Field, 448; congratu- 
lates Benton on verification of his 
judgment about snow as no ob- 
stacle, 450; believed railway prac- 
tical, 450; his life consecrated to 
Pacific Railway, 450; expeditions 
largely due to Benton, 45 1 ; to take 
steps he deemed necessary in Cali- 
fornia, 45 1 ; his resignation sent as 
a safeguard, 451; makes proposi- 
tion to Congress to conduct sur- 
veys, 452; had in mind two routes 
west from Parowan, 453; goes south 
to Cedar City, then west, 453; no 
human being encountered in cross- 
ing Nevada, 454; reaches Sierra 
Nevada, 454; turns south, 454; 
takes horses from Indians, 454 ; , 
crosses by pass south of Walker's 
Pass, 454; declares failure to 



Index 



521 



Fremont, John Charles — Covtinnrd 
build transcontinental railway is as 
treason to mankind, 455; it would 
reverse world conditions, 455; ar- 
rives at San Francisco, 455; de- 
clines public dinner, 455; returns 
from end of fifth expedition in 
California, via Isthmus, 455; poes 
to New York, 455; mentioned for 
Presidency, 455; worked willi 
Brady, photographer, 455; Georj^e 
Childs to publish story, 455; in- 
vited to attend meeting on Kansas 
and Missouri Compromise, 456; 
writes letter, 456; views on slavery, 
456; declines Democratic nomina- 
tion for Presidency, 456; nominated 
for President by Republicans, 456; 
Benton refuses political aid, 457; 
charged with being a sectional can- 
didate, 458; regarded as a traitor, 
458; as a patriot and bulwark, 458; 
Whitelaw Reid supports, 458; cam- 
paign songs, 459-460; charged with 
being a Catholic, 460; campaign 
slander, 460; residence in New York, 
460; description of, 460; parting 
his hair, 460; inadequate portraits 
of, 461 ; remarks of Carl Schurz on, 
461; Bigclow writes life of, 461; 
Bigelow's opinion of, 462; de- 
clared a "neuter gender in poli- 
tics," 462; defeated for President, 
463; votes polled, 463; age of, at 
time of campaign, 463; went to 
Paris, 463; back to California, 463; 
files claim to Mariposa, 464; goes 
to Mariposa with family, 464; title 
confirmed, then disputed, 464; ap- 
peals to Supreme Court of the 
United States, 464; title sustained, 
464; choice of, in survey of grant, 
464; takes in Pine Tree and Joseph- 
ine mines, 465; in war over mining 
claims, 465; triumphs in Mariposa 
case, 466; the bona fide owner, 466; 
financial embarrassment, 466; 
judgment obtained against him, 
467; chief creditor of, 467; buys a 
house and land at Black Point, 
467; goes East, 468; in London, 
468; for the Union, 468; a Major- 
Gencral, 468; headquarters at St. 
Louis, 468; assumes command, 469; 
found affairs chaotic, 469; nego- 
tiates with Price, 469; proclama- 
tion confiscating slaves, 470; creates 
sensation, 470; applauded by Wen- 



dell Phillips, 470; his contention 
as to slaves confiscated, 471; a 
seaix'goat, 471; Whittier addresses 
poem to, 47 1 ; removed for incom- 
petency, 471; plan of action, 472; 
condemned by Blair, 469, 472; 
too exclusive, 472; given com- 
mand in Virginia, 473; remarks 
of Carl Schurz, 473; requests to 
be relieved, 474; executes mortgage 
on Mariposa, 474; his Black 
Point confiscated, 475; resigns from 
the army, 475; nominated for 
President against Lincoln, 475; 
made president of railway, 475; 
goes to Tarrytown, N. Y., to live, ' 
476; goes to Paris, 476; loses Hud- 
son River home, 476; sentenced 
by French Government, 476; goes 
to California, 476; appointed Gov- 
ernor of Arizona, 476; in Prescott, 
476; in Tucson, 476; goes East to 
buy arms, 476; goes to Washington, 
477; writes Memoirs, 477; at 
Point Pleasant, N. J., 477; has 
pneumonia, 477; ordered to Los 
Angeles, 477; made Major-Gcneral, 
477; dies in New York, 477; in 
Trinity vault, 478; at Rockland 
Cemetery, 478; monuments pro- 
posed for, 478; buried at Picrmont, 
479; received a sword from Captain 
Cathcart, 479; respected every- 
where, 480; opinion of Mrs. Fre- 
mont, 480; buried in black clothes, 
480; in pine box, 480; without 
military display, 480; his name 
interwoven with the Far West, 
480; small profits, 480; received 
first onslaught of gathering storm, 
481; monument erected by State 
of New York, 481 ; a gentleman, 481 

Fremont's father, 2; captured by 
British, 3; goes to Norfolk, Va., 
3; teaches French, 3; marries Anne 
Whiting, 4; dies, 5 

Fremont, John C., Jr., with his 
father at the end, 477 

Frdmont, Miss, remains in Dresden, 
476; experiences in Tucson, 477 

Fremont, Mrs. Jessie Benton, quota- 
tion from, 48; to stay at Benton 
homestead during husband's ab- 
sence, 104; urges haste, 105; men- 
tions meetings, in St. Louis, of 
Western men, 107; acted as hus- 
band's secrelarj', 108; tells reasons 
for urging liastc, 108; howitzer was 



522 



index 



Fremont, Mrs. J. B. — Continued 
necessary, 109; says plan was to 
hold Bay of San Francisco against 
the English, no; aids Bret Harte, 
236; anxiety of, 282; translates 
confidential Spanish letters, etc., 
for Buchanan and her father, 286; 
opinion on instructions from Secre- 
tary of State, footnote, 319; quoted, 
381 ; to go to California, 387; much 
admired, 389; to cross by Panama, 
389; accompanies Fremont to 
frontier, 389; the stirrup cup, 390; 
to start for Panama, 404; goes up 
Chagres River in a boat, 410; 
quoted on city of Panama, 411; 
hears of disaster to the fourth ex- 
pedition, 411; ill, 411; hears at 
San Diego of Fremont's safety, 412 ; 
at San Francisco, 412-413; thinks 
tide of fortune had turned, 414; 
tells of Fremont's ride and elec- 
tion as Senator, 419; describes 
Fremont's arrival from San Jos^, 
419; goes home via Panama, 419; 
ill, 419; crosses the isthmus in a 
palanquin, 420; down Chagres 
River in a boat, 420; rough pass- 
age to New York, 42 1 ; should have 
died, 421; at Washington, 421; 
house in Washington burns, 430; 
saves papers, 430; goes to Europe, 
430; presented to Queen Victoria, 
430; saddened by her brother's 
death, 431; ill from anxiety, 448; 
book cited, 448; her story of tele- 
pathy, 448; error in dates, 449; 
campaign song for her, 460; John 
Bigelow pays tribute to, 462; 
threatened by miners at Mariposa, 
465; defies them, 465; sends mes- 
senger for help, 466; goes to San 
Francisco, 467; no desire to return 
East, 467; discovers Bret Harte, 
467, 468; secures a position for 
Bret Harte, 467; in a runaway, 
468; goes East, 468; her story of 
the guard, 472, footnote; unable to 
live in Prescott, 476; Congress 
votes her a pension, 477; refuses 
to recompense her for confiscated 
home, 478; women of Los Angeles 
give her a house, 478; dies, 480; 
cremated remains taken to Pier- 
mont, 480 

Fremont Pass, 266, 439; fifth expedi- 
tion reaches, 446 ; position of, 446 

Fremont Peak, climbed, with names 



of climbers, 86; flag raised on, 86; 
height of, 86; ascent of, compared 
with crossing the Sierra in winter, 
205 ; monument proposed near, 478 
Fremont River, named by Powell, 

439 

French, influence leaned towards 
Californians, 305; investors lose 
money, 476 

Freniere, frontiersman, 14 

Frisbie, Miss Anna, furnishes ma- 
terial for the Bear Flag, 333 

Frontier symphony, 175 

Fuentes, Andreas, appears at Fre- 
mont's camp, 249 

Fuller, Oliver, on fifth expedition, 
432; shoots a beaver, 443; breaks 
down, 447; left behind, 447; badly 
frozen, 447; dies, 447; buried, 448 



G 



Gadsden Purchase, 408 

Gallatin, Albert, map of, in; Jed. 

Smith's route on it, 236 
Galpin reads barometer at Fort 

Laramie, 74 
Gannett Peak, higher than Fremont's, 

87-88 
Gantt, John, with Graham joins 

Micheltorena, 306 
Garden of the Gods, 120 
Garfield, bathing resort Great Salt 

Lake, 153 
Garrison, Wm. Lloyd, criticises Lin- 
coln, 470 
Gate, the, of Bear River, 155; of 

Lodore, 273 
Gavilan (or Hawk's) Peak, Fremont 

fortifies on it, 311 
Gebow, 134 
Geographical Memoir, Fremont's, 

first place of record of name Golden 

Gate, 329, 385 _ 
Geronimo, 407; his band, 408 
Geyer, Charles, German botanist, 

with Nicollet, 11 
Giacome, 249 
Gibbs vs. Fremont, 431; testimony in 

case, 431, footnote 
Gibson, Captain, sent with Gillespie, 

362 
Gila monster, 26 
Gila River, region south of, still 

Mexico, 408; Fremont reaches it, 

409 
Gildea, Dr., goes to Frdmont's camp 

with Bidwell, 302 



Index 



523 



Gilpin, William, 113, 181; proposes 
Pacific Railway, 387 

Gillespie, Lieutenant Archibald H., 
49; sends message to Fremont, 317; 
instructions of, 317-318; contro- 
versy over, 318; to acquaint Fre- 
mont with instructions brought to 
Larkin, 319; George Bancroft's 
statement, 319; admires quality 
of Fremont's men, 323; goes to get 
supplies from Montgomery on Frc!;- 
mont's requisition, 331; arrives at 
Sutter's Landing with supplies, 
331; Benton's statement on his 
message, 336; Special and Confi- 
dential Agent for California, 339; 
in complete harmony with Fre- 
mont, 339; with Fremont calls on 
Stockton, 353; appointed comman- 
dant of southern district, 357; too 
tyrannical, 360; his messenger 
makes a remarkable ride, 360; 
Gillespie-Flores articles of capitu- 
lation, 360, footnote; sent to Gen. 
Kearny, 362; meets Kearny, 362; 
wounded at San Pascual, 362; to 
be appointed State Secretary, 364 

Gilroy arrives in Fremont's camp 
with message from Castro, 312 

Gleneoe, Wyoming, 138 

Glenn's Ferry, 164 

Glenrock, camp near, 79 

Goat Island, 81, 95 

Godey, Alexander, 127; compared 
with Carson, 127; prepares dog for 
eating, 225; with third expedition, 
289; made a Lieutenant, 362; sent 
with Gillespie, 362; sent as mes- 
senger to Stockton, 363; captured 
on return, 363; with fourth expedi- 
tion, 392; on relief party, 397; 
returns to rescue, 399; reaches 
Haler's camp, 400; finds Scott and 
the others, 401 

Gold, discovery of, near Los Angeles, 
and other places, 233; by Gutier- 
rez, 306; by Marshall, 388; Ft6- 
mont first hears of discovery, 409; 
sent down from Mariposa, 414; 
did not go with land in Mexican 
law, 416, 465; American decision 
on ownership of, 466; California 
yield of, for eight years, 466; rise 
in price of, 475 

Gold rocker, 410 

Golden Era, The, California news- 
paper, 467; Bret Harte a compos- 
itor on, and contributor to, 467 



Golden Gate, the, named by Fremont, 
I, 237, 329; name first recorded, 
329; Fremont's home two miles 
from, 467; Fr6mont goes there 
again, 476 

Golden Gate Park, monument to 
Frcjmont i)roposed for, 478 

Goldfield, 210 

Good Spring, 255 

Goose creek, mountains, 161 ; stream, 
162 

Gorgona, end of boat travel on Cha- 
gres River, 410 

Government plans for peaceful con- 
quest said to have been destroyed 
by Bear Flag revolt, 341 

Governor of California, Michcltorena, 
304; Pio Pico, 306; Fremont to be, 

357 

Governor of the fortress of New Hel- 
vetia, 231; uniform of, 231 

Graham, Isaac, and John Gantt 
join Michcltorena, 306 

Grand Canyon, 23; descent of the 
country to, from the escarpment 
of the Rim of the Basin, 267 

Grand Island, arrival at, 58 

Grand Pawnees, village of, 97 

Grand River, leaves valley of Middle 
Park, 276; fifth expedition arrives 
at, 438; difficulty in crossing, 443 

Grand Teton, 157 

Grande Ronde Valley, 169 

Granite Desert, 197 

Grant, Gen., U. S., subordinate to 
Fremont, 471; criticised, 471 

Grass in winter, 440 

Grass seed for food, 141; fifth ex- 
pedition purchases, 443; only food 
of Utes, 444 

Grass Valley, Utah, Frdmont passes 
through, 439 

Gray Canyon, Green River, 439 

Gray, Lieutenant, arrives to aid 
Kearny, 363 

Gray, Mr., of the Boundary Commis- 
sion, 411 

Gray, Robert, discovers Columbia, 31 

Great American Desert, 2^^ 

Great Basin, 23; description of, 24; 
Frdmont applies the name, 168; 
Fremont to explore it, 177; no out- 
let to, 180; second expedition enters 
second time, 188; beginning of, at 
Summer Liike, 192; character of, 
near Christmas Lake, 193; shown 
correctly on maps Ix'forc Fn5mont, 
244; rim of, 267; character of, 270; 



524 



Index 



Great Basin — Continued 

divide between, and the Colora,do 
drainage, 271; Fremont to strike 
across from Salt Lake, 293 

Great Britain, designs of, 39-40 

Great Canyon of the Arkansas, third 
expedition there, 290; now Royal 
Gorge, 290 

Great Event, the, 384, 387 

Great Plains, expeditions across, 50 

Great rides, Fremont's, 375-377; 
Aubrey's, 405; 

Great Salt Lake, compared to Dead 
Sea, 24; called Bonneville, 24; 
Bridger's discovery, 42; Etienne 
Provost said to have discovered, 
135; discovery awarded to Bridger, 
135; Escalante almost discovers, 
135; Bridger thinks it an arm of 
the Pacific, 135; Bonneville wanted 
to explore it, 136; second expedition 
approaches in mud, 148; circum- 
navigation of, by Ashley's men, 150; 
Fremont navigates it, 1 51-152; 
analysis of water, 152; body cannot 
sink in, 152; danger to swimmer, 
153; bathing resort, 153; nearest 
lake to eastern rim of Basin, 199; 
its "southern limb Utah Lake," 
266; Fremont's mistake, 269; third 
expedition there, 291; a second 
base station, 291; Fremont rides 
out to Antelope Island, 292 

Greeley, Colorado, 127 

Green River, second expedition at, 
132; called Rio Verde, and Seeds- 
keedee Agie or Prairie Hen River, 
133; Ashley and Manly attempt 
to descend, 134; Powell explores, 
134; Escalante's crossing of, 273; 
third expedition crosses, at mouth 
of Uinta, 291; a regular crossing, 
291; Cottonwood tree covered with 
names, 291; no good crossing be- 
low till Gunnison Crossing, 291; 
Fremont not a pathfinder as far as, 
434; fifth expedition at, 438 

Green River Valley, 89; second expe- 
dition arrives at, 132; description 
of, 133; rendezvous of trappers, 133 
Gregario and Joaquin, of fourth 

expedition, 398 
Gregg cited, 262 
Grigsby, Captain, left in command 

at Sonoma, 351 
Grimes' House or Ranch, 301 
Grimsley, Thornton, aids fourth ex- 
pedition, 389 



Grizzly bear, emblem on Bear Flag, 

333 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 403 

Gunnison, Captain, named to conduct 
survey for railway, 432; marches 
ahead of Fremont's fifth expedition, 
435; examining way for Central 
Pacific Railroad, 435; killed by 
Utes, 435 ; passed too early to settle 
snow problem, 436; crossed Sangre 
de Cristo Pass, 437; fells trees to 
clear trail, 437; crosses Cochetope 
Pass, 437; his guide, A. Leroux, 
438; crossing of Green River, 438 

Gunnison Crossing of Green River, 32, 
291 

Gunnison River, 438 

Gunnison Valley, 291, 438 

Gutierrez, messenger of Micheltorena, 
hung by insurgents, 306; reported 
finding gold, 306 

Gwin, W. M., Senator from Califor- 
nia, 42 1 ; presents credentials, 422 ; 
works to divide California, 429 



H 



Haler, Vincent, of fourth expedition, 
398; Mariuel begs Haler to shoot 
him, 398; divides party, 398; Godey 
reaches with food, 400 

Hall, Sharlot M., quoted, 391 

Halleck, California, 248 

Hamblin, Jacob, quoted, 253; begins 
Santa Clara settlement, 264; super- 
visor of Indians, 264; rescues a 
white man from the Indians, 264; 
would have prevented Mountain 
Meadows Massacre, 265 

Hamilton, artist, reproduces in colours 
some of Carvalho's daguerreotypes, 

455 

Hamilton Creek named by Fremont, 
300 

Hamilton, Mount, 308 

Hamlyn, Captain, brings message to 
Fremont, 370 

Hammond, Lieut., dies of wounds, 362 

Hardscrabble, 393 

Harte, Bret, 236; a compositor on, and 
contributor to, the Golden Era, 467 ; 
Mrs. Fremont's appreciation of, 
467, 468; secures a position for him, 
468; pathfinder in literature, 468 

Hassler, Superintendent Coast Sur- 
vey, 15; death of, 282 

Hastings, Lansford W., 294 

Hastings Cut-off, 294 



Index 



525 



Hastings party, 234 

Hawk's Peak, see Gavilan Peak 

Hawthorne, Nevada, 298 

Hayden, F. V., gives height of Chim- 
ney Rock, 96 

Health of men of second expedition, 
280 

Heap and Beale, ahead of Frdmont, 

434 

Hcceta, surmises about a nver, 31 

Helen, Mount, 88 

Henderson, Lieut.-Col. G. F. R., 
criticises Stanton, 474, footnote 

Henry, builds on Snake River, 35 

Hcnsley, Samuel, a leading American, 
accompanies Fremont, 329; be- 
lieved the Americans would have 
to fight or leave California, 330; 
Bear Flag army, 339 

Herald, New York, quoted on enthu- 
siasm of Frdmont nominating con- 
vention, 458 

Hernandez, Pablo, Mexican boy ap- 
pears at Fremont's camp, 249; 
Agua de, name applied to the 
Archilette Spring by FriSmont, 252 

Hetch Hetchy Valley, 25 

Hibbard, of fourth expedition, 398; 
Godey finds him dead, 401 

High Plateaus, name for southern 
part of Wasatch uplift, 266; char- 
acter of, 267, 445 

Highways m-arked out by natives, 167 

Hillsboro, New Mexico, Frdmont 
heads for the site of, 407 

Himes, Geo. H., cited, 159 

Hinckley, Captain, 304 

Hittell, J. S., cited, 388, footnote, 
418, footnote; Theodore H., 418, 
footnote 

Hobbling or hoppling horses, 54 

Hock Farm, Sutter mortgages it, 452 

Hoffman, David, Fremont's London 
agent, 427 

Hoosier Pass, 277 

Hoppling or hobbling horses, 54 

Horse, eaten, 156; lost, 229, 272; 
driving across a stream, 240; wild, 
241; train rolls down mountain, 
441 ; method of killing, for food, 445 ; 
divided into twenty-two parts, 445 ; 
each to serve six meals, 445; entrails 
utilised, 445 

Horseback rides, Gillespie's messen- 
ger, 360; Fremont's, Los Angeles 
to Monterey, 375, 376; Aubrey's, 

504 
Horseshoe nails give out, 202 



Ilorse-thii'f Indians, 303 

IIosi)itality of Amerind tribes, 29 

Hostilities on the Rio Grande, 
rumors of, 346 

Hot Spring Gate, 95 

Hot Springs, 149, 164, 167, 195, 196, 
216, 297 

Houghton, Eliza P. Donncr, expedi- 
tion of the Donner party, cited, 209 

House building Indians, 252 

Howard, Mr., 412 

Howitzer, a twelve-pound, secured 
at St. Louis, 104; brings trouble, 
107; reasons for objecting to it, 107; 
Mrs. Fr(5mont says it was neces- 
sary, 109; Benton's remarks on, 
109; useless, 1 10; difficulty of 
transporting, 172; only wheeled 
vehicle with second expedition 
from the Dalles, 182; fired to im- 
press Indians, 185; desirable for a 
fort, 189; abandoned, 217; one 
captured by Mexicans at San Pas- 
cual, returned at Couenga, 371; 
the affair of, influenced feeling 
against Fremont, 383 

Hundred days in Missouri, Fre- 
mont's, 472 

Hudson Bay Company opposes Amer- 
icans, 36; compels Bonneville to 
retire from Oregon, 42 ; foils Wyeth, 
43; crushes Wyeth, 158; character 
of, 166; supplies Indians with arms, 
324; hostility of Indians due to, 325 

Hudson, Henry, 481 

Huerfano, Butte, 436; Carvalho 
wants statue to Fremont put on it, 
436; Creek, 436; Valley, 394 

Hugh's Creek, third expedition camps 
at mouth of, 291 

Humboldt, A. von, writes letter to 
Fr(imont, 4.25 

Humboldt River, first called Mary's, 
and then Ogden's River, 20; Ogden 
first on it, 293; Walker follows it, 
295; Fremont names it, 295; 
named at Ogden's expense, 296 

Humming birds, 244 

Hunt, Wilson Price, goes overland to 
Astoria, 36; discovers short cut at 
bend of Snake River, 166; route of, 
167 

Hunter, General, issues emancipa- 
tion proclamation, 471 
Hunter, Lieutenant, in charge of 

Portsmouth's launch, 331 
Hunting, a business or a pleasure, 443 
Huntington, Nevada, 297 



526 



Index 



Ide, Wm. B., left at Sonoma with 
garrison, 333; proclamation by, 
334; requests powder of Mont- 
gomery, 343 

Imaginary force to attack Fremont, 

327 

Inconstant River, of Gallatin's and 
Wilkes's maps, 248; name probably 
bestowed by Jedediah Smith, 248 

Independence, eastern end of Santa 
Fe trail, with Westport and Frank- 
lin, 41, 82 

Independence Rock, Indians dis- 
agree there, 77; distance by Oregon 
Trail from Kansas City, 81; re- 
ceived title, 81; area, height, and 
position of, 82; Fremont carves 
cross on, 91 

Indian (Indians), American, 27; first 
alarm, 57; farmers, 57; troubles, 68; 
village, police, 73; creed of Catlin, 
98; highway, 121; shooters, 126; 
character compared with white, 126- 
127; debauched by whites, 127; un- 
justly estimated, 141; diet, 141- 
142; of Snake River, 164; of the 
Columbia, 172; guides, 181; high- 
way, 194; 197; of Pyramid Lake, 
199; eaten by Donner party, 209; 
highway, 211, 219; Yokuts, Chris- 
tian, Mansitos, 242; Mohave, 248; 
scalped by Carson, 250; house 
building, 252; agency at West- 
point, 258; troublesome at Spanish 
fork, 269; agency at Uinta, 272; 
alarm of, in Ivliddle Park, 276; Ara- 
paho, 276-277; Ute, 277; battle, 
278; Delaware, Kiowa, Comanche, 
Sioux, and Cheyenne, 279; Pawnee 
attack planned on Fremont, 280; 
apportionment of land, 292; Ute, 
claims Antelope Island, 292 ; eating 
salt, 293; inaccuracy of, 293; trails 
(highways), 296; surprised by third 
expedition, 297; aged woman, 297; 
shot by Walker's men, 297; mortars 
for corn, 300; horse thief 303; 
Fremont's encounter with, on Mari- 
posa, 303; shot, 303, 304; appear 
at camp on Denny's Branch, 317; 
attack on Fremont, 320; fleeing 
to the mountains, 328; Fremont 
deals blow to California, 330; 
Sutter moves against the Moke- 
lumne, 330; painting faces, 330; 
bring rumours of war on Rio 



Grande, 346; 30, recruited by Sut- 
ter and Kern, 365 ; boys of fourth 
expedition, 39S; Apache, 407-408; 
Papago, 408 ; Piman, 408 ; Delaware, 
a noble set, 434; teepees procured, 
436; also see Ute, etc. 

Inez, camp near site of, 78 

Instructions, two sets, to American 
officers, 327 

Insurrection in California, first mut- 
terings of, 305 

Insurgents steal Micheltorena's 
horses, 305; protest friendship for 
Americans, 306 

Irrigation, by native tribes, 25 

Irving, Washington, trip on the 
Plains, 42; description of Bonne- 
ville's ascent of Wind River Peak, 
87; mentioned, 107; tomb of, 
mentioned, 481 

Isabella, 242 

Island Park, 272 

Isthmus of Panama, method of 
crossing, 410; a time saver, 421 



Jackson County, Kansas, Fremont 
crosses, 56 

Jackson, Stonewall, Fremont oper- 
ates against, 473 

Jacob, Old, 265 

Jacobs, Governor, returns from Pa- 
nama, 412 

James, Edwin, writes account of 
Long's expedition, 39 

James, George Wharton, cited, 238 

James's Peak, name given by Long to 
mountain now called Pike's Peak, 38 

Janisse, climbs Fremont Peak, 86 

Jerking buffalo meat, 78 

Jesuit explorer. Kino, 408 

Joaquin and Gregario, of fourth 
expedition, 398 

Joaquin Murieta, bandit, 288, foot- 
note 

Joe Bowers, song of, 429 

John Day's River, 172 

Johnson, Rossiter, quoted, 463, foot- 
note 

Johnson, Theodore T., quoted, 322, 
footnote 

Johnston, Captain, charges Mexicans 
and is killed, 362 

Jones, Captain, 412 

Jones, Commodore, captures Mon- 
terey, 207; takes down flag and 
apologises, 207 



Index 



527 



Jones, William Carey, conducts Fre- 
mont's tlefence, 380 

Jordan River, outlet of Utah Lake 
flowing into Great Salt Lake, 269 

Josephine mine, claimed by Fremont, 

465 
Joshua tree, 27, 245 
Junction City, 114 



K 



Kansas City, formerly Westport, 41; 
distance from Independence Rock, 
81; from South Pass, 82; 280, 389; 
railway to cross Missouri River, at 
390; monument to Fremont pro- 
posed there, 478; 

Kansas Historical Collections, cited, 

159 

Kansas, little town of, 280 

Kansas River formed by Smoky Hill, 
and Solomon, 114 

Kearney, city in Nebraska, Fremont 
reaches site of, 58 

Kearny, General S. W., in command 
of western military division, 104; 
Frdmont requests howitzer, 104; 
ordered to California, 357; enters 
Santa F6 without opposition, 358; 
organises government and pro- 
ceeds to California, 358; meets 
Carson near Socorro, 359; sends 
back part of force, 359; takes Car- 
son as guide, 359; condemned by 
Benton and others for not letting 
Carson go through, 359; reaches 
Warner's ranch (Agua Calientes) 
and communicates with Stockton, 
362; wounded at battle of San 
Pascual, 362; killed in Mexico, 363; 
arrives at San Diego, 363; special 
orders of, 372; would have had 
larger force but for Stockton's mis- 
take, 372; fought the only real 
battle of conquest, 373; waived 
question of authority, 373; advises 
Fr<5mont to take back letter, 374; 
orders from Secretary of War, 374; 
Fremont comes to, at Mon- 
terey, 375; forbids duel between 
Mason and Fremont, 377; re- 
ceives new orders, 378; has re- 
mains of Donner party buried, 378; 
orders Fremont under arrest, 379; 
repudiates all but mutiny charge 
against Frdmont, 382 ; age of, 384 

Keel-boat, 13 



Kern, Dr., 398; killed by Indians or 
Mexicans, 401 

Kern, Edward M., takes place of 
Preuss for third expedition, 288; 
journal of, 296, footnote; states 
division of third exjjcdition was 
at Whitton Sirring, 296; goes down 
Hunil)(>ldt, 296 

Kern, R. II., killed by Utes, 435 

Kern Lake, 241; named by Fr(imont, 
242 

Kern River, 208; named by Fr<5mont, 
242; rendcr.vous of Talbot instead 
i)f King's River, 308; named after 
Kern, 308; Walker thought it the 
apjiointed rendezvous, 308; fifth 
P^remont expedition reaches, 455 

Kerns, the three, of fourth expedition, 
398 

Ketchum, Morris, Fremont executes 
mortgage to, 474 

King, w'ith fourth expedition, 392; 
dies and is eaten by his compan- 
ions, Creutzfeldt, Brackenridge, 
and Williams, 400 

King of Prussia bestows medal on 
Fremont, 425 

King, Thomas Starr, visitor at 
Fremont's, 467 

King's River, 241; camp on, 242, 304; 
Walker's mistake about, 308 

Kino, Padre, 408 

Kiowas, Sioux and Cheyennes in 
battle with, 279 

Klamath, attack on Frc^mont, 320- 
323; killed by Sagundai, 323; me- 
tliod of spreading arrows on the 
ground ready for use, 323 

Klamath Indians, Fr(5mont visits and 
describes houses of, 186; language 
of, 187; I.utuamian stock, 187; 
draw map for Fremont, 190 

Klamath, Lake, 177; Frc^mont's pro- 
posed route from, 179, 185; Frt5- 
mont's route turns east at, 185; 
Fr(5mont reaches it, 316; Fr(5mont 
mistakes meadows for, 316; upper, 
third expedition on, 322 

Klamath Marsh, 183 

Klamath region, Fr(5mont to connect 
with his former exploration there, 

^^5 . , , , 

Klamath River, 185; mistaken for the 

Sacramento, 244 

Knight, William, guide to Fremont, 
360 

Know-Nothing party, against Catho- 
lics, 460 



52B 



Index 



Kooyah {Valeriana edulis), 140 
Kwagunt, who owned a valley now 
named after him, 292 



Labont^, Creek, 78; traoper, 78; 
town, 78 

Labyrinth Canyon, Green River, 
named by Powell, 438 

Ladd, Horatio O., quoted, 403 

Ladies in San Francisco in '49, 413 

La Flesche, Francis, Indian country 
not a wilderness, 99 

Lajeunesse, Basil, enthusiastic to 
proceed, 80; climbs with Fremont, 
86; swims in Platte Canyon, 93; 
paddles down alone, 94; returns to 
wreck, 95; goes on second expedi- 
tion, 104; carries message to Fre- 
mont, 108; with second expedition, 
112; returns from Fort Hall, 158; 
with third expedition, 289; killed, 
321 

Lake Abert, 192 

Lake Elizabeth, 247 

Lake Fork (King's River), Fremont 
fails to find Talbot division there, 
304; Walker's mistake, 308 

Lake fork of the Uinta, 271 

Lake Range, 197 

Lambert, Clement, leader of main 
party, 62 ; climbs Fremont Peak, 86 

Land forgers, legion of, 427 

Land grants, American, 46; Spanish 
and Mexican, 46; Austin's grant 
settles Texas, 46; uncertainty of, 
47; Fremont's, 47; Mariposa, 415- 
416; large, 427; settlers uncertain 
of bounds of, 427 

Land sales not allowed to foreigners, 

327 

Lands below sea level, 26 

La Porte, 128 

Laram6, Joseph, trapper, 74 

La Ramie, 74, footnote 

Laramie, Fort, error in position of, 
52; Fremont starts for, 66 

Larkin, Thomas O., American consul 
at Monterey, 303; consul and con- 
fidential agent of United States, 307 ; 
wealthy, 307; states English and 
Americans wanted to join Fre- 
mont, 311; instructions from 
Secretary of State to, out of date, 
327, 328; sends for warship, 330; 
says California i s soon to be 
governed by England or the United 



States, 336; plan of peaceful con- 
quest said to have been destroyed, 
341; certain h e could achieve 
peaceful acquisition, 342; still 
desires to adhere to old plan, 348; 
receives confidental message from 
Sloat, 348; out if the reckoning, 
354; captured by Manuel Castro, 
364; released, 365 ; statement about 
Mexican parole breaking, 368 ; noted 
for business shrewdness, 416; buys 
Mariposa for Fremont instead of the 
Mission farm, 416 
La Salle, 30 

Lassen, brought mules to Sutter's 
Fort, 302; Peak, 313; Ranch, 313; 
Fremont back at ranch, observes 
with transit, 314; Mexican War 
begins the day Fremont leaves 
ranch of, 314; Fremont returns to, 
324; consultation at, 331 
Las Vegas, Nevada, 253, 254, 259 
Las Vegas and Tonopah Railway, 454 
Latitude, of camp of 31st January, 
1844, in Fremont's Report is lati- 
tude of the camp of the 30th, 220 
Latitude observations, quality of, 212 
Laton, California, camp near, 242 
Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, led 

to Great Salt Lake, 153 
Lawrence, American Minister to 

Great Britain, 430 
Lead mine of the Mormons, 252 
Lee and Perkins, 172 
Lee house, 172 

Lee, John D., leader in Mountain 
Meadows Massacre, 265 ; executed, 
265 
Lee, Captain JohnF., judge-advocate 

of Fremont court-martial, 380 
Leese, interpreter, arrested, 332 
Leidesdorff, American Consul, 304; 
accompanies Fremont to Monterey, 
304; house of, occupied by a club, 
412 
Leroux, A., guide to Gunnison, 438 
Letter bearers killed by Delawares, 

335 

Levant, U. S. man-of-war, 355 

Lewis and Clark, mentioned, 2; their 
line of travel, 31 

Lick Observatory, 308 

Lincoln, Abraham, at head of Fre- 
mont electoral ticket, 457; makes 
speeches for Fremont, 457; orders 
repeal of Fremont's proclamation, 
470 

Linn, Mount, named by Fremont, 313 



Index 



529 



Linn, Senator, 16; statement of, eon- 
ccrning Fremont, 102; introduees 
bill to encourage and protect emi- 
grants, 103; death of, 282 

Lisa, Manuel, mentioned, 35 

Little Snake River, 274 

Lodge by the Golden Gate, name 
bestowed on Fremont's home by 
Starr King, 467 

Lodore, Gate of, 273; Powell camps 
near, 274; canyon of, 273 

Lokcr, Wm. N., with Fremont on 
return trip to the States after con- 
quest, 378 

London, Fremont in, 430-431 

Lone Star idea, 333 

Long camp of Fr6mont, 212, 225, 
226 

Long, Major S. H., expedition of, 

Long's Peak, first glimpse of, 63; 
called by Frenchmen "Les Deux 
Oreilles," 63, 117 

Longitude, observations, quality of, 
212; incorrect, 247, 271 

Longitudes, of second expedition from 
Sutter's Fort eastward, 250 

Lordsburg, New Mexico, 407 

Los Angeles, gold discovery near, 233 ; 
Spanish trail from, to Santa Fe, 
248; to Salt Lake Railway, 253; 
California assembly at, makes Pio 
Pico governor, 306; Stockton and 
Fremont enter, 357; Gillespie in 
command of, 357; revolt, 360; 
Gillespie marches to San Pedro, 
360; Mexicans charge bad faith, 
360; captured by Americans, 370, 
371; Fremont serenaded at, 476; 
ordered there by physician, 477; 
women of, present Mrs. Fremont 
with a house, 478 

Los Mongos, Rio, 21 

Lost River Ivlountains, 161 

Louisiana, acquired by the United 
States, 31; boundary, 37; territo- 
rial claim to Rio Grande boundary 
relinquished by the United States, 

37 
Low, Colonel, proposes railway to 

Pacific, 387 
Lower California, vessel sent there 

for supplies, 361 
Lunar rainbow, 183 
Luther Pass, 212 
Lutuamian stock, Klamaths and 

Modocs of, 187 
Lynch, Jeremiah, cited, 429 



M 



MeCrady, stream named by Fremont, 

3'6 

McDowell, James, with third expedi- 
tion, 289 

McDulTie declares Oregon of small 
value, 40 

M'livoy, Mrs., 419 

McGehee, Micajah, diary of fourth 
expedition, 393; published in Cen- 
tury Magaziyie, 393; makes a climb, 
394; says Fr6mont told them he 
was going to California, 397; his 
party on the return, 398; declines 
to be a cannibal, 399; Godey 
reaches him and his party, 401 

McGlashan, history of Donner party, 
cited, 209 

McLoughlin, Dr. John, chief factor 
Hudson Bay Co., aids Americans, 
37; in charge of Fort Vancouver, 
175; becomes American citizen, 
175; kindness of, 176; sends party 
to punish Indians who attacked 
Smith, 189 

McKinley in charge of Fort Nez 
Perce, 171 

Mackenzie crosses the continent, 30 

Mackinaw boat, 13 

Magoffin, James, Prof. Rives does 
not accept statement concerning 
his services, 354, note; goes to aid 
at Chihuahua, 354; arrested, 354; 
first U. S. Consul at Chihuahua, 
358; secret agent with Kearny, 
358 

Maidu stock, 312 

Malade, Range, 155; River, 147; 
irrigable lands of, 155 

Mangus Colorado, Apache chief, 408 

Manifest destiny, interfered with by 
territory of Mexico, 314; eliminated 
foreign territory, 403 

Manifesto, Mexican, 327 

Manitou Springs, Colorado, 122; 
Fremont's description of, 123; 
altitude, '124 

Manly, Wm. L., attempts to descend 
Green River in a boat, 134; meets 
Chief Wakar on Green River, 268; 
descends Green River, 268 

Manuel, Cosumnc Indian, feet frozen, 
fourth expedition, 398; turns back 
to die, 398; Godey finds him alive, 
401 ; had seen Carver, 401 

Manzanita, plant, 313; leaves used 
for tobacco, 314 



530 



Index 



Maps: of 1782, 18; of 1826, 21; by 
Bonneville, 24, 89; errors in, 52; 
of early West defective, 138 ; Bonne- 
ville's and Gallatin's, referred to, 
177; Wilkes's, 178; Fremont's lack 
of knowledge of, 177-178; no 
Buenaventura River on Gallatin's 
or Bonneville's, 179; not known to 
Fremont, 188; Indian, 191, 202; 
early, erroneous, 386 
Marble Canyon, Colorado River, 23 
Mariposa (or Mariposas), grant, In- 
dian opposition a forerunner of Fre- 
mont's future troubles there, 304; 
purchased for Fremont instead of 
Mission farm, 385; area of, 385; to 
be developed, 387; Fremont en- 
gages Mexicans to work on, 409; 
bags of gold from, 414; considered a 
cattle-range, 415; gold discov- 
ered on, 415; grant to Alvarado, 
415; Larkin buys it for Fremont 
instead of Mission farm, 416 ; bound- 
aries uncertain, 426; title not con- 
firmed, 426; Hoffman Fremont's 
London agent, 427; Benton has 
power of attorney to sell, 427; 
Thomas Denny Sargent leases 
claims, 427; Benton proposes to 
sell the whole to him, 427; uncer- 
tainty of title, 428; Fremont goes 
to, 464; files claim, 464; title con- 
firmed, 464; disputed, 464; sheriff 
sells it out to Francisco O'Campo, 
467; assigned to Mark Brumagim, 
467; richness of the estate, 467, 
footnote; company formed becomes 
owner of, 475; company defaults, 

475 
Mariposa River, Fremont on, 303; 

encounter with Indians on, 303 
Markagunt Plateau, 267 
Markleeville, 212; camp near site of, 

222; creek, 222 
Marksmanship, prize offered for, on 

third expedition, 288; respected by 

Mexicans, 311 
Mark Twain at Virginia City, 210, 

468 
Marshall, James Wilson, in Bear Flag 

affair, 388; joins Sutter to build a 

mill, 388; discovers gold, 388; 

shows gold to Sutter, 388; his 

own account, 388, footnote 
Marshall County, Kansas, Fremont 

crosses, 56 
Mary's Lake or River, 196, 198, 

200 



Mary's River, first name of the Hum- 
boldt, 20 

Martin, member of fourth expedition, 
398 ■ 

Mason, Colonel, has a difference with 
Fremont, 377; challenged by Fre- 
mont, 377; duel forbidden by 
Kearny, 377; fine character of, 
377; to have entire command, 378 

Mason Valley, 213 

Maximilian of Wied on the plains, 

43 

Maxwell, mentioned, 41; halts charge 
of Arapahos, 62; known to Arapa- 
hos, 63; sent to Taos for mules, 
1 1 7-1 19; kills an Indian, 304; es- 
capes arrow, 324; scalps an Indian, 
324; getting rich, 405 

Meade, Rear-Admiral, president of 
the Associated Pioneers, 478; 
makes address at grave of Fr6mont, 

479 

Meares disbelieves in large river, 31 

Medallion, Circle of Friends of the, 
issue medal of Fremont, 480, 
footnote 

Medicine Bow Range, 129 

Medicine Butte, 129; second expedi- 
tion enters pass of, 130 

Memoir, Geographical, on Upper Cali- 
fornia, 385; Warren's, 385, foot- 
note; Fremont's plates Jor, saved, 

477 

Memphis, El Paso, and Pacific Rail- 
way, 475 

Merced River, the Tuolumne, 240 

Merritt, Ezekiel, character of, 329; 
field lieutenant, 329; decides on 
definite action, 331 

Mervine, Captain, lands crew, 361; 
march towards Los Angeles, 361 ; 
four of his men killed, 361 

Mescrew, 249 

Meso, Agua del Tio, 250 

Mesquite, screw-bean, 249 

Methodist Mission, on the Columbia, 
172; description of, 173; in Kansas, 
434; fifth expedition arrives there, 

434 
Methodist preacher. Bill Williams a, 

393 

Metropolitan Hotel, New York, Bige- 
low calls on Fremont there, 461 

Mexican, grant to Chiles, 234; dread 
of American rifles, 235; fashion of 
building, 279; territory known to 
American Government, 284; Coun- 
cil.of War, at Monterey, 327; mani- 



Index 



531 



Mexican — Continued 

festo, 327; l^rutality, 340; protest 
against advanee of United States 
troops, 347; war, planned in 
Washington, 349; war, part of the 
compaet with Texas, 349; ft^rces 
defeat Stockton and Mervine, 361; 
forces not aware of Kearny's pre- 
sence, 362; lack of respect for 
paroles, 368; messengers bring 
news of defeat of JMexican forces, 
370; powder poor, 371; army ready 
for peace, 371; war, number of 
Americans killed in, 403; cost of 
war in money, 403; law exempts 
minerals from land ownership, 416; 
Boundary Commission, Fremont 
appointed on, 416; archives ig- 
nored, 426; citizens swindled in 
California, 427; a, sent back to 
rescue Fuller, 447; law exempts 
gold from land titles, 465 

Mexican territory, Fremont touches, 
179; plans to enter, 179 

Mexicans believed Americans in- 
tended to settle California and 
annex it, 206 

Mexico, war with, expected, 45; 
intimates annexation of Texas 
would be considered declaration of 
war, 45; how far would it tolerate 
trespassing, 49; tension with United 
States, 189; rupture with United 
States certain, 206; war with 
United States begins automaticall}'', 
284; no alternative for, but war, 
285, footnote; mobilises troops on 
frontier, 2S6; to favour England, 
287; concentrating troops on fron- 
tier before Fremont left Washing- 
ton on third expedition, 295; war 
with, a question of a few weeks, 
295; imminence of losing Califor- 
nia, 307; prohibits foreign expe- 
ditions, 310; war with United 
States begins, 314; territory of, a 
barrier to American expansion, 314; 
first battles of war with, 318; in- 
sists on prohibition of Americans, 
326; all their transactions invalid, 
326 

Micheltorena, Governor, supersedes 
Alvarado, 207, 304; fair minded, 
305 ; meets Castro and Alvarado at 
San Josd, 305; horses of, stolen by 
insurgents, 305; truce patched up, 
305; begs Americans to be loyal 
to Mexico, 305; promises Americans 



lands, 306; deposed by California 

Assembly, 306; grants land to 

Alvarado, 415 
Middle Park, second expedition tiiere, 

276; called Old Park, 276 
Miles, Major-General, at Fr6mont's 

burial, 479 
Miller's Cut-off, 259-260 
Mills, J. Harrison, quoted, 403 
IVlilo, Wyoming, 129 
Mimbres Range, Fremont crosses, 

407 
Mimbres River, 407 
Minerals, did not go with land under 

Mexican law, 416; to go with land 

under United States law, 466 
Mirage, 253; on Salt Lake desert, 294 
Mission, Methodist, 434; Shawnee, 

434 
Mission farms to be sold, 384; Frd- 
mont arranges for purchase, 384, 

385 

Missions, of Alta California, estab- 
lished by Padre Serra and Captain 
Portola, 32; at San Francisco Bay, 
237; Californian, flourishing, 238; 
length of regime of, 238; taxed, 334; 
decline of, 334 

Mississippi and Pacific Railroad con- 
vention, 422 

Missouri Compromise, 422; repeal of, 
considered by Fremont a violation 
of good faith, 456; declines nomi- 
nation for presidency by Democrats 
because of, 456; convention of 
opponents of repeal of, nominated 
Fremont for President, 456 

Missouri River, 21 ; steamboats, early, 

13 

Mistake about connection of Utah 

and Great Salt lakes, 269 
Mitchell, John W., befriends Fremont, 

5 

Moapa or Moapariats (Pai Ute) In- 
dians, 256; insolence of, 257; carry 
hooked sticks, 258; kill Tabcau, 
261; bad reputation of, 265 

Moapa River, see Muddy branch of 
the Virgin 

Moccasins, remarks on, 215, footnote 

Modocs, at war with Klamaths, 187; 
of same stock, 187; war with whites, 
188 

Mofras, Eugfene Dufiot de, views of, 
on England and the United States 
with reference to California, 44; 
opinion of, concerning the taking of 
California, 342 



532 



Index 



Mohave Desert, 244-246 

Mohave River, 249; Fremont reaches, 

248 
Moki of Arizona, 98 
Mono Lake, 216 
Mono Pass, 208 
Montagnes, I'homme des, 12 
Montello, Nevada, 213 
Monterey, consul at, sent special 
instructions, 285; American con- 
sul at, 303; Fremont camps near, 
309; description by Wise, 309; seiz- 
ure of, Royce quoted on, 345; 
Cyane and Savannah arrive there, 
348; Fremont and his battalion 
arrive there, 351; Rev. Walter 
Colton appointed alcalde of, 355; 
steamer fails to stop there, 412; 
Captain Jones there, 412; consti- 
tutional convention called at, 418; 
Mrs. Fremont at, 419; Fremont's 
ride from San Jose to, 419 
Montmort, M. de, with NicoUet, 11 
Montgomery, Commander, 330; calls 
capture of horses and Sonoma 
master strokes, 334; letter to Ide, 
343; letter from Fremont, 344; not 
neutral in feeling, 344 
Monument, New York State erects 

one at Piermont to Fremont, 481 
Monument Creek, 120-124 
Monuments proposed for Fremont, 

478 
Moore, Captain, killed at battle of 

San Pascual, 362 
ISIoore, Risdon, disagrees with Fre- 
mont on his methods and is locked 
up, 338 
Moore's Creek, 297 
Moran and Tabeau, members of 
fourth expedition, die, 398; Godey 
reaches them, 401 
Moran, Thomas, pictures of Green 

River Butte by, 133 
Mormon Battalion, 359, 374, footnote; 
approach of, disturbs Los Angeles, 
375, footnote 
Mormon, old, mine, 252 
Mormon, party had examined Virgin 
River route, 453; failed to get 
straight west from Parowan, 453; 
settlement of Cedar City, 453; 
missionaries, 453 
Mormon settlement of Parowan, 432, 
434, 446, 447; fifth expedition 
arrives at, 448 
Mormons, led to valley of Great 
Salt Lake by Fremont's descrip- 



tion, 153; protect emigrants, 257; 
unacquainted with country east of 
the Wasatch Mountains, 440; 
kindness of, to Fremont, 448 

Morreh's storage warehouse burned 
with Fremont's goods, 477 

Morton, Dr. Wm. J., attends Fre- 
mont in last illness, 477 

Mosca Pass, 394 

Mountain Lake, Wind River Range, 
85; in the Sierras, 225 

Moimtain Meadows, 34, 265; mas- 
sacre of IMissourians there, 265 

Mount Bullion, CaUfomia, named 
after Benton, 464 

Mount Hood seen, 1 70-1 71 

Mount Jefferson, 183 

Mount Rainier (Tacoma), 180; active 
volcano, 181 

Mount Regnier (Rainier), 180, 183 

Mount St. Helens, 171, 181; volcano, 
181; view of, 183 

Mudd}^, the, a tributary of Grand 
River, 276; Creek, branch of Sweet- 
water, 131; Fork of the Black, 138; 
River, Fremont recuperates there, 
256; or Moapa branch of the Vir- 
gin, perhaps Smith's "Adams 
River," 256, footnote 

Mud Lake, 197 

Mukoontoweap, north fork of the 
Virgin River, 267 

Mule head soup, 227 

Mules, as "watch-dogs" against In- 
dians, 320; lost and frozen, 395; 
eat pack ropes, 396; meat of , as diet 
for men, 396 

Murchison, Sir Roderick, president 
of the Royal Geographical Society, 

425 
Murietta, Joaquin, California bandit, 

288, footnote 
Musca Pass, 394 
Musical Fund Hall, Philadelphia, 

Fremont nominated in, 456 
Mutiny matter should have been 

more lightly treated, 379 
Mutiny of Fremont and the Bentons 

in the howitzer incident, no 



N 



National Intelligencer, The, letter from 

Benton to, 386 
National Parks wanted for monopoly, 

424 
National Road to the Pacific, 402 



Index 



533 



Navy of the United States ordered 
to be watchful, 284 

Navy Department, instructions to 
commander of Pacific station, 327- 
328 

Ncal, remains at Sutter s Fort, 234; 
settled on Feather River, 313; 
arrives with message at Fremont's 
camp, 317; accompanies Fremont, 
329; belief that Americans must 
leave California or fiKht, 330 

Nebraska, Frdmont enters, 56 

Needles, the, upper limit of Mohave 
tribe, 248 

Ncna Creek, camp on, 183 

Net, for seal catching, of Siberian 
Eskimo, 220 

Nevada and California Railway, 
298 

Nevada, fifth Frdmont expedition 
enters, 453; character of, 454 

New Forks of Green River, 84 

New Fork, third, head of, 85 

New Helvetia, fort, 231; Mexicans 
uneasy about it, 231; armament, 
231; see also Sutter's Fort 

New Mexico, to fall to the Ameri- 
cans on war with Mexico, 284; 
outbreak in, 359; American mili- 
tary governor of, 406 

New Park, former name of North 
Park, Colorado, 275 

New York City, Police Department, 
170 

New York State erects monument in 
memory of Fremont, 481 

Newell, Dr. Robert, takes waggon 
wheels from Fort Hall to the 
Columbia, 159 

Nez Percd Indians, 171, 184 

Nicollet, Jean Nicolas, description 
of, 10; influence on Frdmont, 10; 
aided by U. S. Government, 11; 
engages Fremont, 11 ; first season's 
route, 11; expedition of 1839, 12; 
first to use barometer for altitudes 
of the interior, 14; route of expe- 
dition of 1S39, 14; northernmost 
point of, 14; new expedition planned 
with Fremont as assistant, 18; 
unable to proceed, 18; death of, 
282 

North Platte, 60 

North Platte River, second expe- 
dition sights it on the return, 

275 
Nueces west boundary of Texas ac- 
cording to Mexico, 37 



O 



Oak belt of the Sierra Nevada, 300 

Ober, Dr., with fifth expedition as 
far as Bent's Fort, 436 

Obispo, San Luis, Jesus Pico's home, 
Fr(5mont stops over night there, 
376 

01)servations, errors in Fremont's, 52 

O'Campo, Francisco, obtains judg- 
ment against Fremont, 467 

Ogdon, Peter Skene, first on Hum- 
i)oKlt River, 20, 293; in Great 
Basin, 213; injustice to, 295; aids 
Americans, 296 

Ohio, U. S. S., 412 

Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman), 99 

Oilcenter, 242 

Oil Creek, 278 

Ojo de Vaca, 407 

Old Bullion, nickname for Senator 
Benton, 464 

Old Jacob, 265 

Old Spanish Trail, see Spanish Trail 

Olompali, Mexican force defeated at, 

335 

Onate, Juan de, founds Santa F6, 29 

One hundredth meridian division be- 
tween arid and humid regions, 25 

Order to return, 106 

Oregon, joint occupation by U. S. 
and Great Britain, 36; British con- 
tention on, 37; boundary, 37; 
country worthless, 40; impossible 
of representation in Congress, 40; 
Americans and British near war 
over, 44; societies formed to pro- 
mote emigration, 47; annual cara- 
van to, by 1 841, 47; emigrants 
followed by Fremont, 57; emigra- 
tion, 160; divided into two climates, 
183; final settlement with Great 
Britain, 352 

Oregon Short Line Railway, 138-140, 
164; follows Oregon Trail, 167 

Oregon Trail, rival to Santa F6 
Trail, 42; crosses Platte, 79; width 
of, 79; character of, 81; Father de 
Smet's opinion of, 81; waggons 
first used on, 81; mentioned, 131, 
137; turns ofl[ from Bear River, 
143; heavily travelled, 160; ford of 
Snake River, 164, 166; Oregon 
Short Line Railway follows, 167; 
Fremont declines to follow it home, 
270 

Osage war party charges second ex- 
pedition, 114 



534 



Index 



Otter Creek, Utah, Fremont follows, 

439 
Owens, Dick, joins third expedition, 

289; shoots Mariposa Indian, 303; 

intercedes for Jesus Pico, 368; to 

get married, 405 
Owens Lake, named after Dick 

Owens, 308 



Pablo, 249 ; taken into Benton family, 
280; not a credit to his country, 
288; reported to be the California 
bandit Joaquin, 288, footnote 

Pacific Coast lands "useless," 40 

Pacific, National Road to, 402 

Pacific Railway, 3S7; Fremont sees 
no obstacle to, 401 ; discussed in 
St. Louis, 402 ; paramount question, 
403; Fremont invited to attend 
Philadelphia convention on, 422 

Packing horse or mule, method of, 1 74 

Pack-saddle, description of manu- 
facture, 173 

Padilla, Mexican commander, 334 

Page, Commodore, 355 

Pahsimeroy Mountains, 161 

Pai Utes, at Pyramid Lake, 200; 
general character of, 200-201; draw 
map, 201; report white people on 
river, 201 

Palace, the, at Santa Fe, 358; General 
Kearny occupies it, 358 

Palmer, W. H., a passenger on fifth 
expedition, 432 

Palomas, Rio, Fremont leaves Rio 
Grande at, 407 

Panama, steamers fail to arrive, 410; 
Americans stalled there, 410; a 
walled city, 411; Fremont goes 
East by, 419; Fremont ill there, 
419; returns to California by, 426; 
Fremont goes to California by, 464; 
Frdmont returns East by, 455, 464, 
468 

PannacI: River, 157 

Papago Indians, 408 

Parfleche, men living on, 397 

Paris, Frdmont and his wife go there, 

431 
Park, New, 275 
Park, Old, 275 
Park, South, 276 ; called Bayou Salade, 

277; main road from, 278 
Parker, Dr., goes to Oregon, 43 
Parkman, Francis, at Fort Laramie, 

75 



Parks, North, South, Middle, 22 

Parowan, 266, 432, 434; Fremont in- 
forms men they are nearing, 446; 
fifth Fremont expedition arrives at, 
448; people of, show great kind- 
ness, 448 ; date of Fremont's arrival 
there, 449 

Pass, Breckenridge, 277; Buckeye, 
216; Cajon, 248; Carson, 225; 
Cochetope, 437, 438; Donner, 299; 
Fremont, 266, 446; Hoosier, 277; 
Mono, 208; Mosca (Musca), 394; 
Music, 394; Potosi, 252, 253; Rou- 
bideau, 394; Sand Hill, 394, 437; 
Sandy Hill, 394; Sangre de Cristo, 
394, 437; Sonora, 208, 217; South, 
82, 84, 90; Standing Rock, 144; 
Tehachapi, 207, 218, 243, 246, 266; 
Virginia, 208; Walker, 235, 242, 
243, 266, 308, 454; Williams, 394 

Passes of the Sierra Nevada, 203, 208 

Pathfinder, a name applied to Fre- 
mont, 2; warranted, 207, 439 

Pattie, James O., mentioned, 41; 
elder Pattie dies in prison, 42; 
cited, 262 

Paunsagunt Plateau, 267 

Pavant Mountains, 267 

Paviotsoes, name for Pai Utes of 
Pyramid Lake, 200; they draw a 
map, 202 

Pawnee, 100; camp, 280; intention 
of attacking Fremont, 280; Loups 
oppose attack, 280 

Payette, in charge of Fort Boise, 165; 
hospitality of, 166 

Peabody, George, bails Fremont, 431 

Peavine, or Moore's, Creek, 297 

Peck, Lieutenant, starts with third 
expedition, 289; with Lieutenant 
Abert to explore south of Bent's 
Fort, 289 

Perkins, in charge of Methodist 
Mission, 173; accompanies Fremont 
for a time, 182 

Perkins, Eli, interview of, with 
Brigham Young wherein latter 
states Fremont made a mistake 
about connection of Utah and Salt 
Lake, 269 

Peyri, Antonio, founder of San Luis 
Rey, 239 

Philadelphia, Fremont nominated in, 
456 

Phillips, Wendell, approves of Fre- 
mont's proclamation, 470 

Photography, wax process of, 433 

Pico, Andreas, 368, 371 



Index 



535 



Pico, Don Jesus, capLurerl and con- 
demned to (lie, 36cS; jjardoned, 368; 
became Fremont's warm friend, 
369; sent by Fr6mont to treat 
with Andreas Pico, 371; with Ft6- 
mont on the great ride, 375, 376 

Pico, Pio, made governor of Cahfor- 
nia, 306; absent when Frdmont 
arrives in Monterey, 307; Castro 
proposes to Fremont to join him 
against, 312; starts to subdue 
Castro, 312; changes his mind, 349; 
retires to his ranch, 357 

Pierce, President, Caleb Cushing 
Attorney-General under, 464 

Piermont, N. Y., Fremont buried 
there, 478-479 

Pierre (Chouteau), Fort, 13 

Pike, Lieut., explorations, 34; loses 
men and horses, 34; captured by 
Spaniards, 35; fort built on Platte 
near Fountain Creek, 118; place 
where he was captured by Mexi- 
cans, 290 

Pike's Peak, not so named by Long, 
38; named James's Peak, 38; view 
of, 278 

Pilot Peak named by Fremont, 294 

Pine Creek, camp on, 313 

Pine Nut Mountains, 210 

Pine nuts, 213, 217 

Pine Tree mine, claimed by Fremont, 
465; besieged by the opposition, 

465 
Pine Valley Mountain, altitude of, 

263 
Piney River, third expedition on, 290 
Pink Cliffs, escarpment of Rim of 

the Basin, 267; beauty of, 267 
Piiion {Finns edulis), 27, 213 
Pinus, vionophyllus, 213; sabiniana, 

213; edulis (pinon), 213 
Pinyon or pinon, 213 
Pioche, Fremont's crossing of Nevada 

on fifth expedition began at, 454 
Pipestone Quarry, Red, 12 
Pitt River, 194, 313, 314; Fremont 

camps on, 315; calls it Upper 

Sacramento, 315; Indians, might 

have been attacking party, 323, 

footnote 
Plains, the Great, 21 
Platte River, 21; Frdmont camps on, 

58 
Plum Creek, 120 

Poinsett, Joel R., aids Fr(?mont, 7-9 
Point Pleasant, N. J., Frdmont lives 

there, 477 



Poisoned arrows, 321 

Polk, President, fails to buy Cali- 
fornia, 284; determined to acquire 
it, 286; declares war on Mexico, 315; 
declines to confirm verdict un 
mutiny charge, 382; approves pen- 
alty and remits it, 383 

Pope, Maj.-Gen., in command, 474; 
Fremont declines to serve under, 

474 

Porcupine, a, shot, 444 

Porter, Valentine Mott, quoted on 
Kearny, 378, footnote 

Portland, (Jregon, 179 

Portneuf River, 157 

Portola goes north to settle Califor- 
nia Alta, 32 

Portsmouth, U. S. man-of-war, sent 
to Monterey, 329; at San Fran- 
cisco, 331 

Potosi, mine, 252; Pass, 253 

Pottawatomie County, Kansas, Fre- 
mont crosses, 56 

Powell, second descent of the Colo- 
rado by, 274 

Powell Survey goes into unknown 
region, 440 

Prairie Dog Creek, 116 

Prairie dogs, 116 

Prairie fire, Fremont's experience 
with, 12, 54, 435, 436 

Prairie Hen River, 133 

Presbyterian Mission, Whitman's, 
170 

President, Frdmont named for, by 
Carvalho, 434 

Presidential nominations, 1856, 456 

Preuss, Charles, topographer, first 
meeting with Frdmont, 53; rejoins 
main party, 62; injured by fall, 86; 
tries to carry chronometer along 
shore, 93; mentioned, 104; lost, 
170; climbs with Fremont, 225; 
lost, 228; does not go on third ex- 
pedition, 288; draws map, 385; 
topographer of fourth expedition, 
393; with Frdraont on relief party, 

397 
Price, Governor, of New Jersey, 424 
Price River, formerly Wliitc River, 

V\ . 

Primitive method of packing bur- 
dens on dogs, 280 

Products of Amerindian cultivation, 
28 

Promontory Point, Great Salt Lake, 

«53. 
Pro-slavery presidential tickets, 456 



536 



Index 



Prosopis pubescens, 249 

Proue freezes to death, 397 

Provo Creek, 291 

Provost, Etienne, I2_; perhaps at 
Salt Lake before Bridger, 42; dis- 
covered South Pass, 82 

Prudon captured, 332 

Prussia, King of, bestows on Fremont 
gold medal, 425 

Pryor, James W., Fremont executes 
mortgage to, 474 

Pueblo, Colorado, Beckwourth goes 
there, 64; beginnings of, 118; situa- 
tion, 122; second expedition there, 
on return, 279; settlement thirty- 
miles above, 279; third expedition 
there, 289; one of four base sta- 
tions, 289; fourth expedition ar- 
rives there, 392 

Pueblo de los Angeles, see Los Angeles 

Puebloans, 28 

Puerto de los Cibolos, El, 438 

Pullam's Fork, 275 

Pursley mentioned, 35 

Pyramid Lake, arrival at, 198; origin 
of name, 199 

Pyramid of Cheops suggests name 
for lake, 199 



R 



Rabbit drive, 220 

Rabbit hooks of the Moapa Indians, 

258 
Rabbit net, 220 
Rabbit-skin robes, 199-200 
Rabbit Valley, Utah, Fremont at, 

439 

Rae, William Glen, wishes to drive 
out Yankees from California, 44 

Raft of bulrushes, 268 

Raft River, second expedition camps 
on, 162 

Railway, Memphis, El Paso, and 
Pacific, 475; to Pacific, Benton 
obsessed with, idea, Colonel Low 
proposed one. Barlow proposes, 
387; to cross Missouri at Kansas 
City, 390; to cross the Rocky 
Mountains far south of Union 
Pacific, 390; discussed in St. Louis, 
402; paramount question, 403; 
Philadelphia convention, 422; Con- 
gress orders surveys for, 432; 
reason for Fremont's winter sur- 
vey, 436 

Ramona, San Pascual near, 362 

Rawlins, Wyoming, 131 



Reading, Major, Sutter goes with, 

to punish Indians, 330 
Rebellion, war of, probably would 

have taken place four years earlier 

if Fremont had won election of 

1856, 463 
Rebellion of 1680 in New Mexico, 29 
Red Bank Creek, 313 
Red Buttes, centre of Indian trouble, 

1842, 68, 80 
Red Lake Peak, 225 
Red Pipestone Quarry, 11-12 
Red River, branch of Uinta, 271 
Red River settlement, Fremont goes 

there, 399; near Taos, 400 
Reid, Whitelaw, supports Fremont, 

458; editor Xenia, Ohio, News, 458 
Relief party of fourth expedition, 397 
Report of Fremont, completed March 

I, 1845, 282; creates a sensation, 

282; Congress orders 10,000 copies, 

282; numerous reprints, 282-283 
Republic of California organised, 333 
Republican or Pawnee Fork, 115 
Resignation, Fremont sends one to 

Benton, 335 
Resting Springs, called Agua de 

Hernandez by Fremont, 252 
Revolt, the Flores, 360 
Reyes, Rio, now King's River, 308 
Rhett, Barnwell, 315 
Rhett, Lake, Fremont reaches and 

names it, 315 
Ribera explores north from Santa 

F6, 30 
Richardson, Wm. A., quoted, 331, 

footnote 
Richman, Irving B., cited, 233, 326; 

quoted, 335 
Rides on horseback, noted, Gillespie's 

messenger, 360; Fremont's ride 

Los Angeles to Monterey, 375, 376; 

Aubrey's, 405; Fremont's, from 

San Jos6 to Monterey and return, 

419 
Riley, General, works his own garden, 

413' 

Rim of the Basin, referred to, 256, 
267; the High Plateaus, 445 

Rio Buenaventura, 244, see Buena- 
ventura river 

Rio de los Americanos, third expedi- 
tion on, 300 

Rio Grande, source, 21.; claimed by 
Texas as west boundary, 37; re- 
linquished as boundary by the U. 
S. in exchange for Florida, 37; 
rumours of beginning of war on, 346; 



Index 



537 



Rio Grande — Continued 

fourth expedition goes west from 
head of, 391, 395; Fremont follows 
down it, 407 

Rio Palomas, Fr6mont leaves Rio 
Grande at, 407 

Rio Verde, name of Green River, 133 

Ripon, California, second expedition 
camps near, 240 

Ritter, Karl, proposes Frdmont for 
member of Berlin Geographic 
Society, 425 

River bank, right and left, use of 
terms, 61 

River of the Lake, 241 

River of the West, 30 

Rives, George Lockhart, ridicules 
the idea of Magoflin's secret ser- 
vices, 354; cited, 41 S, footnote 

Road, national, to the Pacific, 402, 

423 

Robbcris, Seiior, Fr6mont passes 
night at ranch of, 376 

Roberton, Dr. John, Frdmont's 
schoolmaster, extols Fremont, 5-6 

Robinson, Alfred, statement of, con- 
cerning attitude of Californians 
on the flag raising by Commodore 
Jones, 207, 234, footnote; cited, 238 

Robinson, trader at Fort Davy Croc- 
kett, 274 

Rock Creek camp, Snake River, 
second expedition, 162 

Rocker for gold, 410 

Rocks rolled by velocity of water, 271 

Rocky Mountain Region, rock rolling 
in, by velocity of streams, 271 

Rocky Mountains, 21; climate of, 
curative, 77-78; high peaks of, 87 

Rohrer, of fourth expedition, 398; 
death of, 399 

Roman Catholic Chapel at Fort 
Vancouver, 176 

Ronde Pointe, Paris, 431 

Root Diggers, 147 

Roscaux or Reed River, now Malade 
River, 147, 156 

Ross, Russian California settlement, 
230 

Roubideau's Pass, 394 

Round Valley, 315 

Royal Gorge of the Arkansas, 290 

Royce, Josiah, unfriendly to Fremont, 
328; criticises Fremont, 335; takes 
pessimistic view of Bear Flag affair, 
340; quoted on seizure of Monterey, 
345; claims Fremont delayed Sloat's 
action, 350; quoted on conditions 



in California, 415, 418; calls Fre- 
mont's slavery proclamation bf>m- 
bastic, 470 

Rubber boat, used to cross Snake 
River, 164. See also Boat, ln<lia 
rubber 

Rufus, chief of the Moapariats, 257; 
thrown out of Dcllcnbaugh's camp, 

257 

Ruins, in the Southwest, 28, 263; of 
a village, 252 

Ruiz, Senora Bernarda, visits Fre- 
mont to end war, 369 

Russian California settlements, 230 

Ruxton, George Frederick, opinion 
and description of Kit Carson, 
50; quoted, 279 



Sacramento River, Frdmont mis- 
takingly thinks himself on it, 191, 
200; goes up it, 313; mistake as to 
head of, 316 

Sacramento Valley, 25, Frdmont de- 
cides to cross the Sierra to, 202; 
proximity of, 221; described, 237; 
upper, 324; Fremont returns down, 

324 
Sage brush land, fertility of, 165 
Saguache, town of, 437 
Sagundai kills Klamath, 323 
Sagundai's Spring, 297 
Salado Lake, 21 
Salczar, General, 358 
Salmon or Fishing Falls of Snake 

River, 160; second expedition at, 

163 
Salmon River mountains, 161 
Salmon Trout (Truckcc) River, 201 ; 

Frdmont thinks himself on it when 

on East Carson River, 221; on it 

again, 299 
Salt Lake, see Great Salt Lake 
Salt Lake City to Los Angeles rail- 

wav, 253 
Salt Lake, Little, 266 
Salt Lake Valley, a garden, 154 
Saltair, 153 
Sal ton Basin, 26 
San Antonio, Nevada, 297 
San Diego, Kearny's army arrives 

there, 363; Mrs. Fremont to hear 

from her husband there, 412 
San Fernando, 247 
San Francisco, first called Verba 

Buena, 304, 331; population in 

1846, 337; and St. Louis railway, 



538 



Index 



San Francisco — Continued 

402; everyone goes to mines from, 
410; steamers cannot start from, 
410 

San Francisco Bay, reported to open 
far back into the interior, 244; 
British fleet expected to take pos- 
session of, in event of war between 
United States and Mexico, 287; 
American settlers mostly north of, 
309, 331; entrance named, 329 

San Francisco de Solano Mission, 

^',■,237 

San Joaquin River and Valley, 25, 
237; up valley of, 240; last camp 
on, 241 

San Jose, Michel torena meets Castro 
and Alvarado at, 305 ; truce patched 
up at, 305; Fremont camps near, 
308; first California legislature 
meets there, 419 

San Jose Mission, 237 

San Juan Capistrano, Americans at, 

371 
San Juan Mountains, 395; Fremont s 

leg frost-bitten there, 419 
San Luis Rey mission, 238; grain 

production of, 238; description of, 

238 
San Luis Valley, 22 
San Pascual, battle of, 362 
San Pedro River and Valley, 408 
San Rafael, Fremont fifth expedition 

at, 438; Labyrinth Canyon begins 

at, 438; Powell expedition of 1871 

camps near mouth of, 439; Swell, 

439 
San Rafael Mission, 237; horses taken 

from, 327 
San Xavier del Bac, Mission of, 408 
Santa Clara Mission, 237; Mont- 
gomery thought it should have been 
captured with Castro in it, 334 
Santa Clara Mountains, 261-263 
Santa Clara River, 263; Mormons 

settle on the, 264 
Santa Clara Road, 454 
Santa Clara Valley, gold found there, 

233 

Santa Cruz, Mexico, 408 

Santa Fe, founded, 29; old church at, 
29; Ribera goes north from, 30; 
population in 1800, 34; trade de- 
velopment of, 41 ; caravan, 47; wag- 
gons take place of pack trains on 
trail, 41; Brown surveys route to, 
41; Texan expedition to, 43; an- 
nual caravan from Los Angeles to, 



248; trail, second Fremont expedi- 
tion camps on, 280; included in the 
claim of Texas, 314 
Santa Isabel River (Sevier), 33 
St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, 
Kentucky, professor proposes rail- 
way to Pacific, 387 
St. Louis, metropolis of the West, 50; 
Fremont's return arrival there, 
102; Derosier turns up there, 234; 
second expedition goes to, 280; 
Fremont organises fourth expedi- 
tion there, 389; meeting to pro- 
mote national road to the Pacific, 
402; resolution of thanks to Fre- 
mont, 402; Fremont meets mem- 
bers of fifth expedition there, 433; 
Fremont has military headquarters 
there, 468 
St. Vrain, Ceran, 62, 405 
St. Vrain's Creek, 65; Fork, 275 
St. Vrain's Fort, 62; Fremont arrives 
at, 65; situation, 65; Fremont at, 
117; position of, 128 
Sandeville, Senorita Louise, wife of 
Beckwourth, 64; marries another, 

65 

Sandhill Pass, 394 

Sandy Hill Pass, 394 

Sandy, Little and Big, 84 

Sandwich Islands, Mormon mission- 
aries bound for, 453 

Sangre de Cristo Range and Pass, 
394, 402; Gunnison crosses, 437 

Sargent, Thomas Denny, leases 
part of Mariposa, 427; sells for a 
large sum, 427; Benton proposes 
to sell the whole to him, 427; 
accepts Benton's offer, 427; re- 
pudiated by Fremont, 428 

Sarpy, John B., Fort John, after- 
wards Fort Laramie, named after, 

74 

Sarpy, Oscar, leaves second expedi- 
tion, 119 

Sarpy, Peter A., loi 

Saunders, with Fremont on relief 
party, 397; earns money to buy 
his wife and children, 414; a suc- 
cessful Forty-niner, 419 

Savage Mine, 210 

Savannah, U. S. man-of-war, arrives 
at Monterey, 348; with Congress 
goes to Gillespie's aid, 360 

Sawatch Creek, 437 

Sawmill, noise of welcome, 175 

Saw Tooth Mountains, 161 

Sawyer Documents, quoted, 326 



Index 



539 



Second expedition, 103; great results 
hinged on it, 109; marvellous and 
eventful, 109; Benton real insli- 
gator of, III; object of, ui; com- 
position of, 112; arms and instru- 
ments of, 112; start of, 113; pro- 
posed route of, 113; divided, 115; 
reunited, 124; divided again, 127; 
at Laramie, 129; attack by Ara- 
pahos, 130; arrives at Sweetwater, 
131; at Green River Valley, 132; 
in Mexican territory, 132; crosses 
Green River, 136; goes within a 
mile or two of Fort Bridger, 137; 
trail from Bridger to Bear River, 
138; down Bear River, 140; to 
Salt Lake, 149; Fitzpatriek met, 
156; to Fort Hall, 157; men sent 
back at Fort Hall, 158; proceeds 
from Fort Hall, 160; divides again, 
162; arrives at Fort Boise, 165; ar- 
rives at JMalheir River, 167; on 
Burnt River, 168; leaves emigrant 
road, 169; crosses Umatilla River, 
169; down the Columbia, 171; at 
Methodist Mission on Columbia, 
173; to start back from the Dalles, 
173; at Fort Vancouver, 175; return 
route of, 177; leaves the Dalles, 
182; number in party, 181; at 
Christmas Lake, 193; at Summer 
Lake, 192; Warner Lake, 193; end 
of 1843, 195; at Pyramid Lake, 
198; estimated, 207; camp on 
Carson River, 210; at the Devil's 
Gate, 216; incorrect longitudes, 
212; latitude of camp on Walker 
River, 212; camp on East Walker 
River, 213; camp in Antelope 
Valley, 219; starts to cross the 
Sierra, 219; at Carson Pass, 226; 
at North Fork American River, 
228; at Sutter's Fort, 228; at Archi- 
lette spring, 251-252; at California- 
Nevada boundary line, 252; at, 
Las Vegas, Nevada, 253; Tabeau 
killed, 261; crosses to Great Basin 
drainage, 263; meets chief Waknr, 
268; crosses Sevier River, 268; 
leaves Utah Lake, 270; at Fort 
Uinta, 272; in Brown's Hole, 273; at 
Bent's Fort, 279; leaves Arkansas, 
280; on Smoky Hill Fork, 280; on 
Santa F(5 trail once more, 280; 
time of absence, 280; to St. Louis, 
280; disbanded, 280 

Soedskcedce Agie, or Prairie Hen 
River, name of Green River, 133 



Selover, Abia, owner of share of 
Mariposa, 474 

Semple, Dr., 331; with Mcrritt and 
others captures Sonoma, 332 ; proud 
of the American forces, 332 

Senate Military Committee, Benton 
chairman of, 286 

Senator, Fremont mentioned for, 417 

Sensitive rose, Schrankia uncinala, 1 15 

Sequoia gigantea, 27 

Sequoia sempcrvircns (redwood), 27 

Serra, Padro Junipero, goes to estab- 
lish missions in Alta California, 32 

Settlers in California unable to define 
land boundaries, 427 

Seven Cities, the, 28 

Severe River, or Sevier, former name 
of Virgin River, 255 

Sevier, General John, 256 

Sevier Lake, 266 

Sevier River, supposed to be a tribu- 
tary of the Colorado, 255; second 
expedition arrives there, 268; cross 
on raft, 268; source of, 268; origin 
of name of, 268 

Seymour, British Admiral, watches 
Sloat, 352; remark of, about Yan- 
kees taking California, 352; sends 
Sloat a copy of a letter to British 
Vice-Consul Forbes, 352 

Shaf ter, third expedition passes near, 
294 

Shasta, 313 

Shasta Indians, range of, 313 

Shasta, Mount, called Shastl by 
Fremont, 313; name from Shasta 
Indians, 313 

Shastan stock, 313 

Shastl (Shasta), 313 

Shawnee Mission (Kansas), fifth 
expedition there, 434 

Sherman, General, says Kearny was 
regarded as rightful commander, 

373 

Shewits, Indians, 330 

Sidney Ducks, the, 429 

Sierra Blanca, 394 

Sierra Nevada, 23; Frdmont resolves 
to cross in winter, 202, 203; alti- 
tudes and conditions, 203; passes 
of, 203 ; crossings of, in earliest days, 
208; struggles of second expedition 
near Carson Pass, 222, 225; forms 
west rim of Great Basin, 267; Fre- 
mont decides not to attempt with 
entire third expedition, 298; oak- 
belt of, 300; fifth expedition arrives 
at and climbs it, 454 



540 



Index 



Sigel, Gen. Franz, takes Fremont's 
place, 474 

Sigler, messenger with Neal, 317 

Sign language, 214 

Silliman, Professor, on Mariposa, 467, 
footnote 

Silver Creek, 227 

Silver Fork of the American River, 
226 

Simpson, remarks on Walker Pass 
and Fremont's crossing by, 242 

Simpson, Sir George, remark of, con- 
cerning future of California Alta, 44 

Sioux, 13; protest at Laramie against 
Fremont's advance, 75; American 
flag a war emblem with, 140 

Sky, colour of, at great elevations, 182 

Slaveholders, few, 463 

Slave labour in California, 414 

Slavery, in California, a paramount 
question, 403; wrangle over, 418, 
421, 422; Fremont opposed to, 
426; Gwin works to introduce, 
into California, 429; Benton loses 
seat in the Senate owing to opposi- 
tion to, 451; Fremont fails of re- 
election to Senate because of oppo- 
sition to, 451; the political guillo- 
tine, 451; Fremont's views on, 456; 
Benton's and Fremont's plans, 463 

Slidell coincides with Fillmore on 
disunion, 458 

Sloat, Commodore, instructions from 
Navy Department, 327; repeat- 
edly told to hoist American flag 
over California at first opportun- 
ity, 341; tardy movements of, 343; 
no initiative, 346; learns of fighting 
on the Rio Grande, 347; orders of, 
347; arrives at Monterey, 348; 
afraid of repeating Jones's blunder, 
348; raises flag at Monterey, 349; 
communicates with both Castro 
and Pio Pico, 349; his instructions 
definite, 350; asks Fremont to 
come with a hundred men, 350; 
sends for Fremont, 351; disturbed 
on finding Fremont was not acting 
under direct orders, 352; hesitates, 
353; illness cause of his hesitation, 
353; Bancroft's letter to him, 353; 
places Cyane under Stockton, 354; 
asks Castro to sign articles of capit- 
ulation, 355; sails for home, 355 

Sluice-boxes, 409 

Scalp for a scalp, 324 

Scalping Indians by Carson and 
Godey, 250 



Schoonover, T. J., cited, 452, footnote 
Sdirankia angustata, and S. uncinata, 

or sensitive rose, 115 
Schurz, Carl, remarks on Fremont 
campaign, 461; description of Fre- 
mont, 473; assigned to Fremont's 
division, 473; sends Lincoln letters, 

474 

Schurz, town in Nevada, third expe- 
dition camps near, 298 

Seott, General Winfield, moves to 
make Fremont a captain, 283 

Scott, of fourth expedition, 398; 
Godey finds him, 401 

Screwbean mesquite, 249 

Shahaptian stock, 184 

Shaw, Bernard, quoted, 214 

Sheep Rock, Bear River, 143 

Shinumos, Land of the, 263 

Shoshone Falls of Snake River^com- 
pared to Niagara, 160; height of, 
161; Fremont misses seeing, 162 

Shoshone Indians, on Bear River, 140; 
American flag a war emblem, 140; 
language not understood, 213 

Smith, Jedediah Strong, 41; first to 
California, 20; took cannon to 
Rocky Mountains, 107; death of, 
107; first to cross Great Basin, 136; 
route of, not known to Fremont, 
177; explodes Buenaventura myth, 
180, 244; Fremont refers to dis- 
aster of, 189; annihilation of party 
of, 189; declines to intrude on 
H. B. territory, 189; mentioned, 
201, 202; said to have crossed 
Sonora Pass, 208; actual crossing 
of Sierra, 208, 213, 300; first to 
cross Sierra Nevada, 208; finds 
gold, 233, 388; route of, in 1826, 
236; battle with Mohaves, 249; 
ill treated by Calif ornians, 249; 
names Adams River, 256; killed by 
Comanches, 268; mentioned, 293; 
386, footnote 

Smith, Thomas L., known as *' Peg- 
leg Smith," operations of, 41 ; on 
a horse raid, 65 

Smith's Fork, 139 

Smith's Valley, 211 

Smoke Creek Desert, 197 

Smoky Hill Fork, Fremont describes 
differently from present naming, 
114; second expedition on, 280 

Snake River Plains, 157 ; last camp on, 
167 

Snelling Fort, picture of, 10 

Snow, plough, rotary, 205; sheds 



Index 



541 



Snow — Continued 

protecting railway in the Sierra 
Nevada, 205; Waslio type, 222; 
shoes, at Carson Pass, 224; blind- 
ness, 225, 398; deeper than ever 
known, 391; problem, Fremont 
makes winter crossing to settle it, 
436; not objectionable as a cover- 
ing, 444 

Snyder, j . R., letter to, from Fremont, 
cited, 402; letter of, to Fremont, 
416; mentions Fremont for Senator, 

417 

Soap, plant, 237 

Socorro, Aubrey goes to, with Fre- 
mont, 406; Fremont arrives there, 
407 

Soda Springs, of Bear River, 142; 
of Bear Springs, 143 

Solomon, Delaware chief, 432 

Songs of the campaign of 1S56, 459- 
60 

Sonoma, captured by Americans, 332 ; 
date of capture, 333 ; prisoners sur- 
render to Fremont, 344 ; number of 
men Frdmont had at, 350; Grigsby 
left in command, 351 

Sonora Pass, 217; Bartleson-Bidwell 
party crosses Sierra by, 208; Smith 
said to have crossed by, 208 

Sonora-AIexicans, Fremont meets 
some, 409; send gold from Mari- 
posa, 414 

Sons of the Golden West, propose 
monument to Fremont in Golden 
Gate Park, 478 

Sorcl (Tabcau), 401 

South Fork, American River, 227; 
of the Platte, 277 

South Pass, waggons first taken 
through, by Bonneville, 41; most 
available pass, 48; Fremont ar- 
rives at, 82; wide and gradual 
ascent, 82; distance from Kansas 
City, 82; Fremont censured for 
claiming discovery of, 82; dis- 
covery of, by Robert Stuart, 83; 
Crooks through, with Stuart, 84; 
Stuart there, 90; described by 
Fremont, 132; Stuart's route 
through, 132; altitude of, 132 

South Platte, 60; verdant, 66 

Southern Pacific Railway, route of, 
across Great Salt Lake, 153; line 
of, about Frdmont's trail, 243; at 
Tehachapi Pass, 246, 409 

Southern Road to California, 248 

Spaniards in New Mexico, 29 



.Spanish Fork, second expedition 

camps on, 269 
Si).'misli River, name for Green River, 

«3 

Spanish Trail, 32, 235; Frdmont ar- 
rives at, 18, 44, 248; via Las Vegas, 
254; crosses Bcavcrdam Mountains, 
263; Fremont describes it as going 
through what is now called Fremont 
Pass, 266; Wakar, levies tribute 
on caravans of, 268; crossed Green 
River in Gunnison Valley, 291; 
Santa F6 to Los Angeles, 438; pos- 
sible branch via Fr6mont Pass, 439, 
440 

Spanish trails over passes, 394 

Split-Mountain Canyon, 272 

Spring Mountain Range, 252-53 

Standing Rock Pass, 144 

Stanislaus, Society upon the, Bret 
Harte poem referred to, 236 

Stanton, E. M., criticised by Hen- 
derson, 474, footnote 

Stars, brilliancy of, 182 

Starvation on fourth expedition, 398 

State Department, instructions to 
Larkin, 327, 328; transmits Prus- 
sian medal to Fremont, 425 

State marshal arrives with armed 
men at Bear Valley, 466 

State sovereignty, Fremont believes 
slavery should not be interfered 
with where protected by, 456 

States' rights, 463 

Steamboat Spring, 142 

Stearns, Don Abel, 356 

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, opposed to 
stimulants, 215; quoted on adven- 
ture, 279 

Stcpperfeldt, of fourth expedition, 
39B 

Stevens Peak, 225 

Stevens-Townscnd party, route, 299 

Stirlin<i, the ship, with Frdmont, goes 
to Monterey, 361 

Stockton, Commodore, arrives at 
Monterey, 352; says Sloat is to 
relinquish command, 353; requests 
him to do so, 353; first in command 
of the Congress, 353, 355; appoints 
Colton Alcalde of Monterey, 355; 
plan of campaign, 356; lands at San 
Pedro, 356; goes to Verba Buena, 
360; goes to relief of Gillespie, 360; 
goes to San Pedro, 361 ; marches 
towards Los Angeles, 361 ; notified 
of Kearny's arrival, 362; sends Gil- 
lespie to Kearny, 362 ; surprised to 



542 



Index 



Stockton — Continued 

find Carson with Kearny, 363; be- 
ginning of difference with Kearny, 
363; tenders position of Com- 
mander-in-Chief to Kearny, 364; 
intended to appoint Major Fremont 
governor, 364; claimed to have in- 
augurated civil government, 364; 
error in saying Fremont when he 
signed treaty of Couenga did not 
know what had occurred at Los 
Angeles, 372; slurs Kearny, 372; 
his mistake causes Kearny to reduce 
force, 372; claims independence of 
Kearny, 373 ; claims California bat- 
talion was subject to his orders, 373 ; 
receives new orders, 378; age of, 
384; ex-commodore, nominated for 
President, 456 

Storrs, Augustus, sent to investigate 
Santa Fe trade, 41 

Strawberry Creek of the American 
River, 226, 271 

Strobel, Max, 432; joins fifth expedi- 
tion, 434; returns to Westport with 
Fremont, 434 

Stuart, Robert, comes east by South 
Pass, 36; copy of diary of, in New 
York Public Library, 36, 83; first 
to go through South Pass, 83; 
reaches North Platte, 83; in South 
Pass, 90; route at South Pass, 132 

Stuck, Archdeacon Hudson, of Alaska 
quoted, 263 

Stump Spring, 252 

Sublette, William, 41; one of the 
owners of Fort William, later Fort 
Laramie, 74 

Subterranean River near Shoshone 
Falls, 162 

Summer Lake, 213; reason for name, 
192; character of, 192 

Sumter Fort fired on, 468 

Supreme Court, U. S., confirms Fre- 
mont's grant of Mariposa, 464 

Sutter, Captain John A., meets 
second expedition, 228; buys out 
Russians, 230; parentage and his- 
tory, 231; opposes Alvarado's 
grant to Hudson Bay Company, 
232; projects woollen factory, 
233; Bidwell describes, 301; 
his debt to the Russians, 301; 
portrait of, 301 ; unable to furnish 
Fremont with mules, 303; as a 
Mexican official gives Fremont 
passports, 304; goes to see Michel- 
torena, 305; concludes to support 



Micheltorena, 306; joins Michel- 
torena with Gantt and Graham, 
306 ; warns Castro against Gillespie, 
318, footnote; expects Mexican 
Government to buy him out, 318; 
moves against Mokelumne Indians, 
330; Fremont tells him he is a 
Mexican, 337; reports on Fremont 
and his plans to Micheltorena, 337; 
on the fence regarding Americans, 
343 ; raises American flag at his fort, 
349; recruits Indians for Fremont, 
365; to build a mill, 387; Marshall 
shows him gold, 388; meets adverse 
circumstances, 452 ; despoiled of his 
estates, 452 ; mortgages Hock farm, 
452 ; helpful to everyone, 452 ; ends 
his days in the East, 452 

Sutter's Fort, second expedition 
arrives at, 228; location and de- 
scription of, 230; garrison of, 
232; troops sent to break up, 233; 
Fremont there in 1844, 234; lati- 
tude of, 234; footnote concerning 
Wilkes's longitudes, 234; Fremont 
leaves on return, 235; officer comes 
to inquire Fremont's business, 235 ; 
Fremont desires to get to it before 
snow-time, 298; Grimes's House 
near, 301; Bidwell says nearly 
everybody went there, 301 ; arma- 
ment of, and garrison, 302; no fort 
built when Bidwell arrived, 302; 
Fremont returns there without 
finding other division of third ex- 
pedition, 304; all Americans at, 
conclude to support Micheltorena, 
306; to be bought by Mexicans, 
319; Americans take refuge there, 
326; prisoners taken to, 337; Fre- 
mont puts E. M. Kern in charge of; 
as a United States post, 338, 
Kearny and Fremont start from, 
on return, 378; Marshall brings 
gold to, 388 

Sutter's Mill, gold found at, 233 ; gold 
discovery develops new condi- 
tions, 418 

S wager Creek, 216 

Swamp Creek camp, second expedi- 
tion, 162; buffalo killed there, 
162 

Swasey, William, 366; quoted on 
Pico's pardon, 368 

Sweetwater River, Fremont goes up, 
82 ; returns down, 90 

Swift, Granville P., Captain, Bear 
Flag army, 339 



Index 



543 



Sybille, Adams & Co., owners of Fort 

Platte, 67 
Sycan River, 190 

T 

Tabeau, brings good news, 156; killed, 
261 

Tabeau and JMoran, fourth exjjedi- 
tion, die, 398; Godey reaehcs them, 
401 

Tableaux de la Nature, cited, 425 

Table Mountain or Cliff, 83, 267 

Table of latitudes in Frdinont's 
Report gives latitude of camp of 
January 30, 1844, correctly, but 
states incorrectly the river it was 
on, 220 

Tahoe Lake, 226 

Taih Prairie, 183 

Talbot, Theodore, 112; at Fort Hall, 
157; with third expedition, 289; in 
charge of main division of third 
expedition, 296; in charge again, 
298; fails to connect with Fremont, 
304; Carson and Owens find him, 
308 

Taliaferro, Major, Indian agent at 
Fort Snclling, aids Nicollet, 10 

Tallow used for cooking, 181 

Tank, natural water storage, 260 

Taos, San Fernandez de, B e c k- 
wourth married there, 64 

Taplin, Captain, with fourth expedi- 
tion, 392, 398 

Tappan Zee, 481 

Taylor, General, advocates move to 
the Rio Grande, in 1845, 285; 
ordered to advance, 314; goes to 
west bank of Nueces, 314; Presi- 
dent, appoints Fremont on JNIexican 
Boundary Commission, 416; in- 
tended as a mark of disapproval 
of Fremont court-martial, 416 

Tchichipa Creek, 244 

Tepee, method of transporting, 444 

Tehachapi Pass, 207, 218; taken for 
Walker Pass, 242; western limit of 
Clistoyjicca arboresccns, 245; not 
discovered by Walker, 454 

Telepathic message received by Mrs. 
Fremont from her husband, 448 

Telles, Lieutenant Colonel, arrives 
at Sutter's to ascertain Fremont's 
business, 337 

Temperatures, 25 

Tents discarded, 316 

Tetons, Three, 157 

Texas, claim to Rio Grande as bound- 



ary, 37, 314; independence of, 43; 
Santa i'Y-exijedition, 43; settled bc- 
causeofAustin'sgrant,46; proposed 
annexation of, to the United States 
deemed by Mexic:o an unfriendly 
act, 189; admission of, into United 
States, a matter of time only, 206; 
Mexico then at war automatically, 
206; annexation of, a foregone con- 
elusion, 284; Congress admits it, 
284; claim to Santa F<5 absurd, 
285; failure of, to bring Santa F6 
under its flag, 314; part of the 
Louisiana purchase exchanged for 
Florida, 349 

Thermometer, mercury contracts into 
bulb, 394; below zero, 396 

Third Fr<imont expedition into 
Mexican territory planned, 287; 
eventualities of war taken into 
consideration, 287; military design 
of, 287; increased force for, 288; 
dictated by desire to secure Cali- 
fornia, 288; prize offered for 
marksmanship, 288; animals left in 
pasture from second expedition, 
289; members of, 289; arrives at 
Bent's Fort, 289; no topographical 
survey, 289; Kit Carson and Dick 
Owens join, 289; composed of 
si.xty men well equipped, 289; 
started from Bent's Fort, 289; 
at mouth of canyon of the Arkan- 
sas, 290; arrives in Mexican terri- 
tory, 290; instruments of, 290, 
footnote; strange fish caught called 
buffalo fish, 290; route of, across 
Grand, White, and Green Rivers, 
291; arrives at Utah Lake, 291 ; 
night march to Pilot Peak, 294; 
divided, 295; a military reconnais- 
sance, 295; divisions to meet at 
Walker Lake, 296; separated again, 
298; to meet at Lake Fork, 298; 
at Sutter's Fort, 301; Talbot fails 
to connect, 304; Walker's mistake, 
308; Talbot division found, 308; 
came over Walker Pass, 308; 
vacant ranch chosen for camp, 308; 
fortifies on Gavilan Peak, 311; on 
Feather River, 312; on Pine Creek, 
313; at Lassen's ranch, 313; at 
Rhett Lake, 315; at Klamath 
Lake, 316; attacked by Klamalhs, 
320; attack Klamath village, 322; 
ends on return to Lassen's ranch, 
325; nineteen men of, return with 
Fremont to the States, 378 



544 



Ind 



ex 



Thompson, Craig, and St. Clair, 273 

Thompson Creek, 128 

Thompson, Professor, names Mount 

Bangs, 261 
Thorp, Fremont's fifth expedition 

passes near, 454 
Thought transference, 448 
Three Buttes, the, not the same as 

Trois Buttes, 157 
Three Parks, the, 275 
Three Tetons, same as Trois Buttes, 

157 
Timber of Oregon, 184 
Time, value of, in California in '49, 

413 

Times, New York, quoted on Fre- 
mont's nomination, 456; Benton 
declines to furnish material for 
memoir on Fremont, 457 

Timpanogos River, 21, 291 

Tinanens Creek, camp on, 182 

Tintic Valley, 269 

Tio Meso, Aguade (Tomaso), 249-250 

Tlamath, Fremont's way of spelling 
Klamath, 185; name for a dog, 185; 
dog obtained at Tlamath marsh, 
eaten, 225 

Tlamath River, 185 

Tobacco, Indians use manzanita 
leaves for, 314 

Todd, makes Bear Flag, 333; libe- 
rated, 335 

Tomaso, Agua de (Tio Meso), 249- 
250 

Tompkins, Captain, U. S. N., meets 
Admiral Seymour at Valparaiso, 
352 

Tonaquint, name for Santa Clara, 263 

Tonopah, 210 

Toombs coincides with Fillmore on 
dis-Union, 458 

Topeka, Fremont fords river near, 55 

Torre, Captain de la, 334; sent letters 
to he intercepted, 335 

Torrey, Professor, classifies botanical 
specimens, 102, 213 

Torrey River, Fremont names it, 323 

Towns, Charles, 122; goes to swim in 
icy torrent, 227 

Townsend-Stevens party, 209 

Trade with Santa Fe, 34 

Transit, Fremont sets it up at Lassen's 
ranch, 314 

Travois, dog or horse, 280; Fremont's 
tepee taken along that way, 444 

Treaty of peace at Couenga, 371 

Tree giants in California, 26 

Trelease quoted on Yucce^B, 245 



Trois Buttes, 157 

Truckee River, called Salmon Trout 
River by Fremont, 201 ; on emi- 
grant road of 1849, 202; Fremont 
on again, 299; camps "at its head," 
299; heads in Lake Tahoe, 299 

Tubac, 408 

Tucson, Mexican presidio, 407; first 
mentioned, 407; derivation of 
name, 407; population of, 408 

Tulare Lake, 241 

Tuolumne, crossing by boat, 240 

Turner, Captain, in command, 363 

Tushar Mountains, 267 

Twin Creek, 138 

Two Buttes, 84 

Tygh Prairie, 183 

Tyler, President, opposed to emi- 
gration to Oregon, 49; not in favour 
of Fremont's expedition, 106; ap- 
points Fremont Captain, 283 



U 



Uinta, Port, 272 ; Valley, 272 

Uinta River, latitude of head of, 271; 
third Fremont expedition crosses 
Green River at, 291; Berthoud's 
road crossed Green River at, 291 

Umatilla River, second expedition 
crosses, 169 

Umpqua, Hudson Bay Company post 
on the, 324 

Umpquas, Thomas Virgin killed by, 
256 

Uncompahgre River, 438 

Uncompahgre Utes, 441; surround 
Fremont's tent, and demand pay 
for horse, 441 

Uncompahgre Valley, 441 

Union Pacific Railway, Fremont fol- 
lows route of, 59 

United States, plans to move army 
to the Rio Grande, 285; proba- 
bility this had been discussed before 
Fremont left Washington on third 
expedition, 285; chief subject of 
impending war with Mexico, 287 

United States Indian Agency, at 
Westpoint, 258; at Uinta, 272 

Upham cited, 423 

Utah, west boundary of, reached by 
fifth Fremont expedition, 453 

Utah Lake, 2 1 ; called southern limb 
of Great Salt Lake by Fremont, 
154, 266; stated to connect with 
Salt Lake, 269; third Fremont 
expedition arnves at, 291 



Index 



545 



Ute Creek, 278 

ULl' Indian claims Antelope Island, 
Salt Lake, 292 

Utcs, San Rafael at Green River 
favourite resort of, 439; Frdmont 
fifth expedition meets some Un- 
compahgre, 441; surround Fre- 
mont's tent, 441 ; at (jreen River, 
444; Fremont's fiftli expedition 
meets band under Arapecn, 447; 
present Fremont with a dog, 448 



Vaca, Ojo de, 407 

Valeriana edulis, 140 

Vallejo, General, commandante mili- 
tar, 233; furnishes Castro with 
horses, 327; headquarters at So- 
noma, 332; Americans capture 
him, 332; Colton's book dedicated 
to him, 355; cited, 418, footnote 

Van Buren, President, appoints Ft6- 
mont 2d lieut.. Topographical En- 
gineers, 9 

Vancouver declared no river existed 
at the Columbia, 31 

Vandalia, Gillespie takes refuge on 
the, 360 

Vegas, Las, Nevada, 253, 254, 259 

Vegas de Santa Clara, Las, or Moun- 
tain Meadows, 34, 265 

V^rendrye, Chevalier, reaches Rocky 
Mountains, 30 

Vermilion Creek, Brown's Hole, 274 

Village, ruins of a, 252 

Virgen, Rio, see Virgin River 

Virgin River, name changed, 255; 
formerly Severe, 255-56; origin 
of name, 256; Fr<$mont finds it a 
rough river, 259; Tabeau killed on, 
261; north fork, 267; route, 447; 
one route Fremont considered west 
from Parowan, 453 

Virgin, Thomas, river perhaps named 
after, 256 

Virginia City, 210 

Votes polled by Fremont for Presi- 
dent, 463 



W 



Wadsworth, Nevada, Frdmont camps 
near, 299 

Waggon-road, National, 423; con- 
necting Mormon settlements, 447 

Waggons, used on Oregon Trail, 81; 
left at Fort Hall by emigrants, 159; 



a curiosity at Fort Boise, 166; first 
brought into (.'alifornia, 209 

Waiilatpuan Indian stock, 168 

Wakar (Wakara), Chief of the Utes, 
introduced to Frcjmont, 268; Fr(5- 
mont meets son of, 399; on the 
war path, 434; price on his head, 
435; spelling of name, 435, footnote; 
meets brother of, 447 

Wakara, noted Ute Chief, see Wakar 

Walker, Chief of the Utes, sec Wakar 

Walker, Joseph, goes to California 
by way of the Humboldt, 20, 22, 
42 ; his men shoot Indians for amuse- 
ment, 126; lost in the desert, 136; 
second to cross the Great Basin, 
136; with Fremont at Salt Lake, 
154; guide to division of Chiles 
party, 161; explodes myth of the 
Buenaventura, 180; knew the 
Basin region, 180; referred to in 
footnote, 201; second to cross the 
Sierra Nevada, 208; third to cross, 
208 ; gets into Yosemite Valley, 208 ; 
reference to, 213, 243; overtakes 
and joins Fremont, 266; acquainted 
with the Ute Chief Wakar, 268; 
must have known Utah and Great 
Salt Lakes were not connected, 270; 
describes Great Basin to Fremont, 
270; guide to second Frdmont ex- 
pedition, 271; with third expedi- 
tion, 289; follows Humboldt River 
to its sink, 293; lake named after, 
296; guide to second division third 
Fremont expedition, 296; approach 
of third expedition to lake, 298 ; un- 
acquainted with King's River, 308; 
sent in search of Fremont division, 
308; northern crossing of Sierra 
led to Yosemite Valley, 454 

Walker Pass, 208, 235, 242, 243; Fr(5- 
mont confuses with Tehachapi, 266; 
Talbot division of third Fremont 
expedition enters California by, 
308; referred to, 454; northern, led 
to Yosemite Valley, 454 

Walker River, 2 1 1 

Walla Walla, second expedition ar- 
rives at the, 170 

Walla walla Indians tell Frdmont their 
wrongs, 365 

Walpole, Lieutenant, description of 
Fremont's arrival at Monterey, 

351 
Wapinitia, Oregon, camp near, 183 
War Department, Unitcil States, 

sends no orders to Pacific region, 



546 



Index 



War — Continued 

328; map of i860 shows a blank 

in Wasatch region, 439 
War of the Rebellion, would have 

come earlier if Fremont had won, 

463 

War with Mexico, to follow annexa- 
tion of Texas, 284; automatic, 284; 
begins, 314 

Warner, Captain, killed by Indians, 

193 

Warner wounded, 362 

Warner's ranch (Agua Calientes), 
Kearny reaches it, 362 

Wasatch Mountains, 23, 445 

Wasatch uplift, southern part called 
the High Plateaus by Dutton, 267 

Washington authorities, plan of, de- 
stroyed, 341; send new instructions 
to Stockton and Kearny, 378 

Washington, Colonel, Fremont dines 
with, 406 

Washington County, Kansas, Fre- 
mont crosses, 56 

Washo, tribe, 213; arms of, 214; un- 
able to ride, 214; guide, 218; guide 
departs, 219; crowd camp, 220; 
rabbit-net of, 220; family living 
in the snow, 222 

Waterpocket, 260 

Weber's Fork, 149; Fremont makes 
base camp on, 150 

Webster, Daniel, opposed annexa- 
tion of Texas but wanted the Bay 
of San Francisco, 284; invites Fre- 
mont to dinner, 284 

Weightman, murders Aubrey, 406 

Weller replaced on Mexican bound- 
ary commission by Fremont, 416 

Wellington, Duke of, names the 
Frdmonts as guests at his birthday 
dinner, 430 

Welhngton, Nevada, 211, 218 

Weluchas, the Delaware, gets a deer, 

447 . 

West Carson River, go up it to Dia- 
mond Valley and over to East 
Carson River, 222 

Western Engineer, early Missouri 
river steamboat, described, 38 

Western resources demolished and 
crippled, 424 

West Point graduates, consider Fre- 
mont an intruder, 72; accused of 
jealousy, 109; prejudiced against 
Fremont, 373 ; jealousy, 382 

West Point Academy, Fremont's son 
goes there, 476 



Westpoint, Nevada, Indian Agency, 
258 

Westport, eastern end of Santa Fe 
trail, with Independence and 
Franklin, 41; Kansas City now, 
41, 48; Fremont arrives at, on re- 
turn, loi ; fifth Fremont expedition 
fits out there, 433 

West Walker River, 216-18 

Wet Mountain, range, 393; valley, 

393, 394 
Wetowah Creek, Fremont names it, 

324 

Whirlpool Canyon, 272 

White Earth Creek, 438 

White men, treachery of, 262 

White Mountains, 394 

White^Mountain Valley, 394 

White River, 291 

White River, now Price River, 271 

Whiting, Anne, 3; marries John 
Pryor, 3; divorced, 4; marries John 
Charles Fremont, 4; mother of 
Fremont, 4; widow, 5; declines to 
go to France, 5; moves to Charles- 
ton, 5 

Whitman, Marcus, goes to Oregon, 
43; takes waggon beyond Fort 
Hall, 159, 170; massacre of, 170; 
Ogden saves remnant of settlement 
of, 296 

Whitney, Prof., on Mariposa, 467, 
footnote 

Whitney, Asa, asks for land grant 
for Pacific railway, 387 

Whittier, John G., writes poem on 
Frdmont, 471 

Whitton Spring, location of, 297; 
place where Kern says third expedi- 
tion divided, 296, footnote 

Wickiup, 164 

Wilderness, present population in, 
424 

Wilkes, map of Upper California, 44; 
conducts explorations, 44; Fremont 
second expedition to connect with 
survey of, 103; calls Great Basin, 
the Great Sandy Plain, 168; dis- 
crepancies in map of, 168; Fre- 
mont's survey connected with, 175; 
statement on armament of Fort 
Vancouver, 176; notes Mexican 
jealousy of Sutter's power, 231; 
correction of observations of, 329; 
controversy with Benton and Fre- 
mont, 386; eliminated Rio Buena- 
ventura from his map, 386 

Williams, Colonel, cited, 65 



Index 



547 



Williams, Captain, 8 

Williams, Old Bill, with fourtii fxj)c- 
dition, 392; a Methodist preacher, 
393; facility in lanj,'uaKes, 393; re- 
luctant to j;:o, 393; nearly frozen, 
395 ; lie and liis party consume body 
of Kint^, 400; killed by Indians or 
Mexicans, 401; failed in not going 
to Taos, 402 

Williams Pass, 394 

Wilson, A. D., climbs Frdmont Peak, 

«7 

Wilson, Mount, 211 

Williamson River, 185 

Wind River Range, 83-84 

Winter Ridge named, 192 

Wise, of fourth expedition, lies down 
to die, 398 

Wolf, Captain, Delaware Indian, 434 

Wolfskin, William, establishes Span- 
ish Trail, 33, 235; settles at Los 
Angeles, 235 ; period of the Spanish 
Trail, 440 

Wolves, follow buffalo, 60; not dan- 
gerous to men, 60 

Wool, General, proceeds to Rio 
Grande, 314 

Woollen factory projected by Sutter, 

233 

Wreck in Platte Canyon, 94 
Wyeth, Nathaniel, goes to Fort 
Vancouver, 42; foiled by Hudson 
Bay Co., 43; crushed by Hudson 
Bay Co., 158; British build Fort 
Boise to drive out, 165 



X 



Xavier del Bac, San, church and 
mission, 408 



Yampa roots, 129 



Yampa River, also called Little Snake 
and liear River, 129; chief fork 
of, 274 

Yankee Doodle, 428 

Yerl)a Buena, plant, 237; island, 237; 
village, 237, 331; San Fran(i:.( o, 
304; messenger reaches from (iil- 
lesi)ie, 360; transformation of, 428 

Yerington, camp of second expedi- 
tion near, 2 1 1 

Yokuts Indians, 242 

Yoscmitc Valley, 25; Walker gets 
into it, 1833, 208; discovered by 
Walker, 208 

Young, Brigham, leads Mormons to 
Great vSalt Lake on Fremont's 
description, 153; charges Fr<5mont 
with making mistake as to con- 
nection of Salt Lake and Utah 
Lake, 154, 269; ready to assist 
in punishment of perpetrators of 
Mountain Meadows massacre, 265; 
desires to be friends with Wakar 
the Ute Chief, 435 

Young, Captain, loses animals and 
men, 22 

Yuba City, 312 

Yuba Indians, 312 

Yuba River, Frdmont at, 312 

Yucca, clislo arborcsccus, 245 

Yucca trees, 245; disappear, 263 

Yuccecc, largest of, 245 

Yupu, see Yuba 



Zagonyi, Major Charles, Hungarian 
commander of Fremont's body- 
guard, 472; charges the enemy, 472; 
in Virginia with Fremont, 473 

Zantzinger, Capt. John, 7 

Zindell, Louis, Prussian artillerist, 
104, 112 

Zygophyllum Californicum, 246 



The North Americans of 
Yesterday ::::::::: 



A Conipm'aiwe Study of North American 
Indian Life, Cnstoins, and Products, on 
the Theory of the Ethnic Unity of the Race 

By Frederick S. Dellenbaugh 

With about s^o illjistratiotis, <?", net, $4.00 



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The Romance of the 
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Breaking the Wilderness 



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'ff^...t.-1j.4'' '^' 



The Conquest of 
Mt McKinley 

The Story of Three Expeditions through the Alaskan Wilder- 
ness to Mount McKinley, North America's Highest and 
Most Inaccesifale Mountain. 

By Belmore Browne 
Appendix by Herschel C Patkcr 
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is supplemented by a remarkable series of photo- 
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white especially prepared for the present volume 
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